Pasieka/Science Photo Library RF via Getty ImagesHuman papilloma virus as seen through a colored transmission electron micrograph.
So how many people have human papillomavirus in their mouths?
Quite a few, say researchers who got more than 5,000 volunteers across the country to spit into a cup and answer detailed questions about their sex lives.
The bottom line: 6.9 percent of people in the U.S. (ages 14 to 69) have oral infections with HPV. Some types of HPV are linked to cancer and genital warts.
About 3.7 percent of people have “high-risk” oral infections from types of HPV that are most likely to lead to cancer. About 3.1 percent have “low-risk” infections.
The results were just published online by JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. An accompanying editorial says “these results are remarkable….”
How come?
A dramatic increase in cancers of the head and neck has been linked, in part, to HPV, which is also a cause of many cervical cancers. Now we have some real numbers about the extent of infection in the U.S. to go on.
For instance, a virus type dubbed HPV-16 was found to affect about 1 percent of people. That’s the one that’s been detected in about 85 percent of oral cancers.
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