The Human Papilloma Virus

The Human Papilloma Virus, generally referred to as HPV, was first linked to cervical cancer by epidemiologists in the late 1990’s (Hariri, 2014). Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women with 528,000 new cases diagnosed worldwide in 2012 (CDC, 2015). HPV provided medical scientist the opportunity to develop a vaccine to fight against humanity’s greatest enemy-cancer. Harald Zur Hausen received a Nobel Prize for his work linking HPV to cancer (Brody, 2012). Gardasil and Cervarix is the first vaccine developed for cancer prevention. With the media fighting to stop the use of Gardasil and vaccines similar to it, and the ever climbing prices of the vaccine, it is unsure of where the world will find itself in the next 15-20 years
The Human Papilloma Virus (condyloma acuminata) causes many different types of warts. Genital warts are a variety of small clustered fleshy bumps that appear as a stringed bulge on the genital area. Genital warts can appear on the outside or inside of the vagina, vulva, cervix, anus, and mouth (Stine, 2014). All of the places where warts may appear contain mucous membranes; the moisture contained in these membranes causes the skin cells to become more susceptible to the virus (Stine, 2014). HPV can be diagnosed by a visual inspection of the genital area from a medical professional; however diagnosis can only be determined during an outbreak of symptoms. Genital warts are usually undetectable in men, as most men are asymptomatic to the virus. Some genital warts can be difficult to see or identify, causing the health care professional to be uncertain about identifying the infection as HPV (HPV,
The way HPV turns into cervical cancer is the infection not clearing. The infection causes abnormal cells to appear. Cervical cancer is caused when these abnormal cells cross the basal membrane and spread to the underlying tissues (Crow, 2012). The precancerous cells begin by creating a low-risk lesion during the productive infection stage; known as a Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia 1 (CIN1). This lesion is usually left untreated and normally clears up on its own. However, if this lesion persists it will eventually manifest into a high-risk precursor lesion known as a CIN2 or CIN3 depending on latency. Sometimes these lesions clear up suddenly, but they can require treatment. If left untreated, the CIN3 will grow into an invasive cervical cancer lesion (Crow,