🏳️‍🌈✝️More Than 40 Percent of Americans Have HPV

One quarter of men and one fifth of women have high-risk strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) that can cause various cancers.

April 18, 2017

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Genital human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes genital warts, infects 42.5 percent of U.S. residents, including 45.2 percent of men and 39.9 percent of women, The New York Times reports. 

Higher-risk strains of HPV are associated with various cancers, including those in the mouth and pharynx in the case of oral infections, and the cervix, vagina, penis, anus and throat in the case of genital infections.

HPV, the highest-risk strains of which are preventable with vaccines, causes an estimated 31,000 cases of cancer per year in the United States.

Publishing their findings in a data brief, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics produced national estimates of oral HPV prevalence among those 18 to 69 years old by analyzing data from the 2011 to 2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) results, as well as the prevalence of genital HPV among those 18 to 59 years old based on data from the 2013 to 2014 NHANES results. They considered 37 strains of HPV, including 14 high-risk strains.

An estimated 25.1 percent of men and 20.4 percent of women 18 to 59 years old had high-risk strains of genital HPV. Broken down by race, the high-risk strain prevalence was highest among Blacks (33.7 percent), followed by Latinos (21.7 percent), whites (21.6 percent), and Asians (11.9 percent).

An estimated 7.3 percent of those 18 to 69 years old had oral HPV, including 4 percent who had the high-risk strains.

To read the New York Times article, click here.

To read the CDC report, click here.

Read more articles from POZ, here.