An interesting story about HPV

[HerryTheHerp]

Many of you may have seen this today, and despite my own personal disdain for anything coming from NBC, I'm going to share this. Keep in mind as you read this article that the math is extremely off and I already have a serious disdain for anything Fox writes about; she's a lousy journalist and likes sensationalism while also having a serious inability to keep her facts straight from article to article.

 

However, this article's merit is not in the information it is reporting, it is in the discussion it is opening about STI's in America. While HPV and HSV are very different, their prevalence is astounding. Articles like this will open the public's eyes and provide an opportunity for the HSV community (that's us y'all) to keep that discussion moving in the right direction and bring the shame and stigma into the light where it can melt in the warmth of the attention.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/hpv-found-two-thirds-americans-survey-finds-n109846

[VirusEnhanced]

Thanks Herry I really appreciate this. I doubt I would have found the story otherwise. It gives me hope.

[WCSDancer2010]

More than two-thirds of healthy Americans are teeming with HPV, a new survey finds.

 

Teeming with HPV??? So we all have dozens of strains, eh? Yeah - a little sensationalist to say the least.

 

“The HPV 'community' in healthy people is surprisingly more vast and complex than previously thought, and much further monitoring and research is needed to determine how the various non-cancer-causing HPV genotypes interact with the cancer-causing strains, such as genotypes 16 and 18, and what causes these strains to trigger cancer,” Yingfei Ma, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

 

Such a community is called a microbiome, and scientists are learning that the populations of bacteria, yeast and viruses living in and on our bodies help in digestion, help control disease-causing bacteria, and may affect obesity, cancer and even mental health.

 

THIS is very interesting - styudying the interaction of the various viruses, bacteria, and yeasts out there...then add other stressors... lots and lots that we don't know or understand yet.....

 

Like you said ... this is a good article to get the discussions out there.... going to add it to my STD page on FB.... it's a good start for some conversation on there :)

 

[VirusEnhanced]

What I'm curious about is the fact that they have some sort of swab tests available and that's how they are testing these people. Yet there are no known reliable tests for HPV?

 

Or is the test complex/Expensive that it wouldn't be practical.

[WCSDancer2010]

There is a swab for women that they can do when they do the Pap smear - but to test a guy they'd have to put a long-assed q-tip up your willie...so most guys won't go for it :p