by he human papilloma virus (HPV) is the sexually transmitted infections (STI) most common that exists. Jesus of the Fountain, coordinator of the Lower Genital Tract-HPV Pathology Unit of the Infanta Leonor University Hospital (Madrid) explains that it is estimated that up to 80% of sexually active people They are going to have contact with this virus at some point in their lives.
“Throughout our sexual life we are going to encounter the virus on more than one occasion. With every sexual relationship, not with a new partner, we can have contact with HPV“, he affirms. Because, as he points out, can remain latent, without showing signs of being there for long enough to infect a regular partner. Although the risk, he adds, is greater the more sexual partners one has. The good news is that there is increasing vaccine coverage, screening to detect it in time and tools to prevent, as far as possible, becoming infected.
De la Fuente has been one of the speakers who presented the campaign campaign Let’s make it fashionableorganized by the biopharmaceutical company MSD, and which is included in the initiative HPV is everyone’s thing, which this year has the endorsement of 59 social and health entities. Your goal is that the consequences of the virus will be known so that measures are taken and it stops being so frequent to the point of eradicating the cancer of cervix.
A field infection
The also secretary of the Spanish Association of Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy (AEPCC) has explained that one of the reasons that has to do with its high frequency is that The condom, despite being a “great and very necessary tool”, does not fully protect. Furthermore, “there is still a non-negligible percentage of people who do not use it and, among those who do, it is not always from the beginning of the sexual relationship.”
HPV, he adds, is a field infection: any area it contacts during sexual intercourse (vulva, vagina, penis, oropharyngeal region…) can be infected.. And the consequences can be physical, from genital warts to premalignant lesions and cancer. But, just as he points out that you cannot know which infections will end up developing one of these problems, he assures that In most people, these reactions to infection always occur: anger, depressive feelings, anxiety, guilt and shame..
Cervical cancer
Among the diseases that can develop with HPV are cancer of the cervix, vagina or vulva, but also of the anus, penis or oropharynxas you have pointed out Ana Santaballa, head of the Breast Cancer and Gynecological Tumors Section of the Medical Oncology Service of the La Fe University and Polytechnic Hospital in Valencia.
However, it has placed emphasis on the cervical cancer, one of the most related to the virus. A disease, he assures, that can be prevented. According to data from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM), they are diagnosed annually more than 600,000 cases worldwide and more than 2,300 cases in Spain, where it is the third gynecological tumor in incidence and mortality, behind endometrial and ovarian cancer.
The Most are diagnosed in early stages thanks, above all, to the screening carried out among women between 25 and 65 years old.. Additionally, they can be cured with surgery. “But here comes the first obstacle: we need good teams of gynecologists and oncologists,” she says. Something, she adds, that does not happen in all countries in the world. Also, in case it is already extended, more than 40% of women who are treated will have a fall. Likewise, its treatment is more complex and requires a combination of radiology and chemotherapy, in addition to cohesion and coordination between teams that “is often not feasible in all centers.” On the other hand, he indicates, immunology is improving survival from this disease.
Vaccination coverage
To avoid all this, in addition to screening, a good vaccination is needed and there, in Spain, it is being done well. Jaime Pérez, The president of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology (AEV), assures that coverage is around 91% in the last three years, although it is somewhat lower in boys than in girls.
Since 2023, practically all autonomous communities include children in coverage, which has represented great progress in the objective of stopping the virus. Furthermore, the president of the AEV considers that it is “of the best vaccines we have in the vaccination calendar“, so they also invite adults to get it. To that, and to end the stigmatization of HPV, especially considering that, practically the majority of the Spanish population will have it at some point.
