More about human papillomavirus (HPV)

This page provides links to PATH's work on human papillomavirus (HPV) and information about the disease and related vaccines.

HPV is a common infection that most men and women acquire at some point in their lives. HPV causes cervical cancer and other health problems, leading to about 530,000 cervical cancer diagnoses and 275,000 deaths each year. Eighty-five percent of deaths occur in the developing world.
There are more than 100 types of HPV, most of which do not cause severe disease. Low-risk types of HPV can cause genital warts whereas high-risk types can lead to cancer of the cervix, vagina, anus, and penis. Cervical cancer is the most common by far.
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection. Most sexually active adults are infected with HPV at some time in their lives.
Usually HPV infections resolve without causing health problems, but sometimes they persist. These are the cases that can progress, over many years, into life-threatening cancer.
Treatment at the “precancer” stage is relatively simple, does not cause serious health problems to the patient, and has high rates of success. Screening adult women for cervical precancer and cancer at least once in their lives significantly reduces the risk of mortality.

When given to girls and young women prior to sexual debut, new vaccines against the two HPV types that account for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases worldwide—types 16 and 18—have proven to be greater than 92 percent effective in preventing persistent HPV infection and 100 percent effective in preventing vaccine type-specific cervical lesions (precancer).
Two HPV vaccines currently are available but they are just beginning to be used in developing-world, public-sector programs. In part this is due to the current high price of the vaccine.
Cervical cancer prevention strategies must include screening for cervical lesions among adult women, because vaccines do not protect against all cancer-causing types.

Page last updated: January 2011.