Half of Men Might Have Genital Warts Virus
A new study examining rates of Human Papilloma Virus—the virus that can cause genital warts, as well as certain kinds of cancer—infection found that as many as half of men in the general population could be infected. In their genitals!
Anna Giuliano of the H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, and colleagues studied infection rates among more than 1,100 men aged 18 to 70 in the United States, Brazil and Mexico to get a snapshot of the natural progression of HPV infection in men.
"We found that there is a high proportion of men who have genital HPV infections. At enrollment, it was 50 percent," said Giuliano, whose study appears online in the journal Lancet.
The study seems to indicate that it would be a good idea to vaccinate boys against HPV, even though the kinds of cancer it causes in men—anal, penile, head and neck—appear less frequently than the cancers it can cause in women—specifically, cervical cancer. Anyway, the point is: Think of two men. One of them probably has genital warts! (Note: Not really.)
