The human papillomavirus is silent

HPV and You

At least half of sexually active people who have acquired a disease that is potentially dangerous and most of them do not know they are infected. It is the human papilloma virus or HPV that cause genital warts but can also cause cervical cancer. This is what you need to know to protect themselves.

Many suffer without knowing

Monica Munoz, a specialist sexual diseases program of the Department of Health County of Los Angeles talks about this disease SaberHacer.com. "HPV is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States and each year there are an estimated 6 million cases diagnosed. In the family of more than 40 HPV types, some cause cervical cancer, others cause genital warts. 50% of the population have HPV but do not know who has it and is usually acquired when a person begins to engage in sexual activity.

HPV silent disease in Hispanics

The virus can be contracted by having sex with someone who has the virus. Studies indicate that the most common way of contracting HPV is:

• Having sex at an early age.

• Having sex with multiple partners.

• Having a partner who has had sex with multiple partners.

Men and women of all ages should take precautions about certain types of HPV as this virus is the most common cause of cervical cancer. HPV infections are commonly associated with various genital cancers in men. Except for genital warts, there are no symptoms and even these do not always appear in all cases.

Symptoms of HPV

Symptoms of HPV can be genital warts that look like cauliflowers are sometimes flat and do not look because they are in the cervical area of women or anal area of men. For women it is very important to make the Pap test every year.

The specialist Munoz explained how they present: "Genital warts can show up weeks or months after having had a sexual relationship with a person infected with HPV. In normal are not painful. Sometimes, if you grow too much, may start bleeding and that the person is exposed to acquiring other sexually transmitted diseases. "

Munoz also talks about the risk: "Not all types of HPV cause cervical changes in women there are some who are high risk and there are some who are low risk, but there are some women that it may be infected with type that you can cause cervical cancer. "

How can you protect one of the HPV virus? The only way is to abstain from sex completely. Experts recommend limiting the number of partners with whom one has sex and couples choose to have the same or lesser number of previous sexual relationships. Using condoms and spermicides reduces the risk but even the safest sex is safe when it comes to HPV.