HPV rates of infection similar in men and women
Men are also at high risk of acquiring human papillomavirus (HPV) infections, but most last no more than a year. This is about the same time the infection persists in women, researchers report in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.
HPV, the sexually transmitted disease known for causing genital warts, has recently been attributed to cervical cancer.
In 2006, the vaccine Gardasil was approved but in 2007 a report showed only a quarter of adolescent girls were receiving the vaccine.
Because male-to-female transmission of HPV influences the risk of cancer in women, Dr. Anna R. Giuliano of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, and colleagues conducted a study to get more information on the matter.
290 men from southern Arizona, ages 18-44 years, who were recruited by a variety of means, were examined and followed for 15.5 months.
Over the entire study period, roughly half of men were infected with HPV and nearly a third of the HPV types found are known to cause cancer. About 75 percent of the infections cleared within a year of detection, as reported in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in a Reuters article.
The HPV vaccine is currently being tested internationally in men.