CHICAGO (AP) – The first national estimate suggests that nearly half of U.S. men have genital infections caused by a sexually transmitted virus and that 1 in 4 has strains linked with several cancers.
Most human papillomavirus infections cause no symptoms and most disappear without treatment. And most adults will get an HPV infection at some point in their lives.
But high-risk HPV can cause cancer in the mouth and upper throat, cervical cancer in women and other cancers. Less harmful strains can cause genital warts.
Vaccines can prevent infections but experts say vaccination rates in pre-teens and young adults are too low. High-risk HPV poses cancer risks to people who are infected and to their sexual partners, who can catch HPV even when the infections are silent.
The study “just underscores that you need to vaccinate boys as well as girls, ” said Debbie Saslow, an HPV specialist at the American Cancer Society.