Why HPV is Said to be More Dangerous and Threatening Than Sars?

Human papillomavirus, more commonly known as HPV, is one of the most common sexually transmitted disease or a viral infection that can cause warts. Papillomaviruses are a diverse group of DNA-based viruses that pass on through genital contact (such as vaginal and anal sex) or they may spread through skin-to-skin sexual contact. Generally, these are common viruses that infect the skin and mucous membranes of humans and a variety of animals. Currently, there is no cure for HPV.

HPV Particles (red and green)

HPV particles are about 55nm in diameter. They are small viruses that contain 8 genes packed inside a protein coat. Two HPV genes which are called E6 and E7 are responsible for the transformation of normal cells into cancer cells.

According to an academic research of The Internet Journal of Oncology published in 2004, all HPV viruses share a similar genomic organization, which consists of approximately 8,000 base pairs in a double DNA strand. All the open reading frames (ORFs) that could encode proteins for these viruses are located on the one viral strand that is transcribed. The HPV genome has three distinct regions. The "early" region encodes the viral proteins involved in viral DNA replication, transcriptional regulation, and cellular transformation (E oncogenes). The "late" region encodes the viral capsid proteins (L1 and L2 genes). The third region, called the long control region, or also called the upstream regulatory region, does not contain any ORFs but contains cis-regulatory elements.

HPV Genome

HPV causes warty lesions known as condyloma acuminata or venereal warts, which are primarily found on the skin or mucus membrane of both males and females. Some of these lesions can only be seen if 5% acetic acid (usually in the form of common white vinegar) is applied to the infected surface.

What are Types of HPV and their Associated Diseases?

There are more than 100 different strains of HPV that affect different parts of the body. Some strains of HPV cause warts on the feet, hands, and other parts of the body, while other strains are sexually transmitted and cause warts that affect skin in the genital area -- the vulva, vagina, cervix, rectum, anus, penis, or scrotum. Though most are harmless and do not cause health problem, approximately 30 exist in the genital area and can cause condyloma acuminate (genital warts) and these 30 types may also put you at risk for cancer. These 30 strains can be classified either as "high" or "low" risk strains. Low risk strains can cause genital warts while high risk strains can lead to cancers of the cervix, vulva, vagina, and anus in women while in men, it can lead to cancers of the anus and penis.

Generally, there are approximately 13 high-risk strains of HPV. Of these, two (type 16 & 18) are said to cause about 70% of cervical cancers. The high risk strains are almost always caused cancer of the cervix. Low risk strains may sometimes cause changes in a Pap smear, but they do not progress to cancer like the high risk strains. Of the low risk strains, type 6 and 11 are most likely to cause about 90% of genital warts. Other strains include type 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68 and 69 ("High-risk" sexually transmitted HPVs) are mostly associated with the high possibility of getting cervical cancer besides leading to the development of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN), Penile Intraepithelial Neoplasia (PIN), Vulvar Intraepithelial Neoplasia (VIN), and/ or Anal Intraepithelial Neoplasia (AIN).

What are the Symptoms of HPV?

A majority of HPV infections show no signs or symptoms and thus people who are infected are always unaware that the HPV virus is transmitted to their sex partner (s). The symptoms usually take weeks, months and even years to appear. Others may have no symptoms at all. Therefore, the HPV infection is often extremely difficult or impossible to figure out who infected whom.

Symptoms of HPV usually appear in the form of wart-like growths or abnormal cell growths (dysplasia) that typically appear within 3 weeks to 6 months after sexual contact with an HPV infected person. The growths are typically moist, soft, red or pink swellings and are neither painful nor itchy. They can be single or multiple growths or bumps, raised or flat, small or large but sometimes they form a cauliflower-like shape within the infected areas.
In some cases, these cauliflower-like shape growths can take years to appear. These genital warts may also be flat and are normally found on the inside and the outside of the vagina, particularly in a women's cervix which can be precancerous and cancerous conditions of the cervix. The warts may also be seen in or around the urethra, anus and sometimes the mouth, lips, tongue and throat. In men, they usually appear on the penis, but they can also found on the scrotum or around the anus. Only in some rarely cases, growths are found in the mouth or the throat. If allow to grow, these warts can block the openings of the vagina, urethra, anus, interfering with urination, and they can cause sores, and bleeding.