The human papilloma virus (HPV) is associated with the development of cervical cancer, genital warts and other cancers.  Although two HPV vaccines have been approved on the market: Gardasil in 2006, which protects against HPV-6 and HPV-11, and Cervarix in 2009, the vaccine applications are still limited to age barrier (WebMD, nd).  Gardasil is recommended as a routine vaccination for females aged 9-26 years old and for boys and men aged 11 to 21 while Cervarix, is recommended for use in females aged 10-25 years old. In the US, 20 million people are affected with HPV, and about 30 of the 100 HPV-types are transmitted sexually (Web MD, nd). Many epidemiological and experimental studies, indicated that 99% of cervical cancers contains HPV DNA, and four specific HPV types (6, 18, 31, and 45) cause at least 80% of diagnosed cervical cancers (Pagliusi, nd).

World-wide, the prevalence of HPV infection ranges between 9-13%, which accounts for 630 million infected individuals. An infected individual will develop HPV infection within three months, and 70% of genital HPV infections are subclinical, and never progress to disease (Pagliusi, nd).  In addition, most HPV infections regress spontaneously.

References

Center for Disease Control and prevention. (nd).  Human Papillomavirus (HPV): Screening.Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/hpv/screening.html.

Gordis, L. (2009).  Epidemiology (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Saunders/Elsevier.

Pagliusi, S (nd).  Vaccines against Human Papillomavirus.  Retrieved from http://www.who.int/vaccines/en/hpvrd.shtml.

Web MD. (nd).  HPV Vaccines.  Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/sexual- conditions/hpv-genital-warts/hpv-vaccines-human-papillomavirus.