What do you know about HPV?

[mamakay]

First of all, I should mention that I really hope the impending mandatory HPV vax works.
While the mandatory nature of all vaxes really makes me mad, I still do hope this one works well, and if I had a daughter, I'd probably suggest she get this some time in her reproductive future if it worked as well as, say, the CP vax.
That's just an "off the top of my head" hypothetical thought, though.

Anyway, here's what I know:
Everyone carries some strain, probably several strains, of HPV. There are thousands, if not millions, of strains of HPV.
One particular strain is commonly associated with genetial warts, and another commonly associated with cervical cancer. Some strains cause warts on nipples, some cause warts on feet and hands. Some just hang out and do nothing.
I *think* there's some grey room in there, too, for some strains that might be associated with both warts and cancer at the same time.(I'm thinking this because a good friend of mine was dx'd with clinical warts and told she was thusly at risk for cervical cancer...of course, she might have been lied to, or the gyn. might have been misinformed?)
I know with HPV there are far more "unknowns" than "knowns".

I know that in regards to the HPV vax there have been no long term cancer studies. It might "work" as a cervical cancer preventive, it might not.
Logic would dictate, though, that it, in theory, should.

Am I misunderstanding or misinformed thus far?

What do you know about HPV and the vax?

[LongIsland]

Two page thread with lots of HPV facts:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...&highlight=hpv

[mamakay]

Here's a link that's not too hard to read that talks about HPV and oncogenic viruses in general.
http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/lecture/RETRO.HTM

Interesting that they're not entirely sure HPV causes cervical cancer, anyway.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Minutes vaccine cell substrate meeting. http://www.fda.gov/cber/minutes/0910evolv.txt
My Page 88 and 89 ~ I saved it to a word document (perhaps 86 or 87 on theirs)

"We have found a brand new HPV type for every 10 people that we have looked at. Philodelius and Ethel Michelle Diveres and zur Hausen and Shamen in European study of tutanius papilloma viruses have found a new papilloma virus for just about every other person they have looked at when they use the combination of nested PCR and DNA sequencing. Robbie Burke's group, Jill Polefski's group, have very comparable experiences looking at anal papillomas or female genital tract. It is my contention right now that instead of 80 HPV genotypes or 150 that have been officially named, that there probably are millions of variants, virtually a continuum.

We feel that basically everybody has their own personal micro flora, that these are passively acquired or vertically acquired, not necessarily sexually, but certainly possibly sexually, and that they simply are part of the human condition as are microflora, just as we have microflora composed of bacteria and many other viruses, and that they basically are utterly ubiquitous.

Page 101-102

R. BROKER: Well, I think one way is that in a very high percentage of the people, there are clear dysplasia, low and high grade. All the women who have any degree of dysplasia are also biopsied, and the inside 2 hybridization, as you can see, is showing clear effects in the tissue. (pg98) So I don't think there's surface adventitious contaminants. These are within, at least a fair number, if not all, are within the cells, and causing various degrees of actual overt illness.

DR. RUSSO: I may have missed the data. Did you show the types that are associated with high grade lesions, the HPV types? I didn't see on the table.

DR. BROKER: Yes. Well basically, in this immense spectrum of what's now 37 different viruses that we found, those that are most typically associated with low and high grade dysplasia, the actual diseases, are the higher risk types.

DR. RUSSO: So you are not suggesting that if you want to prevent cervical cancer, we should focus on different types of the one already identified?

DR. BROKER: Well the real problematic thing for any clinical management, either vaccination programs or small molecule drugs, is this absolutely exploding number of virus types. The one thing that I think is going to -- and I commented a day or two ago that in the U.S. alone today, there are over 250 to 300,000 people immuno-suppressed just due to organ transplants, (Pg 99)steroid use, or bone marrow transplants or AIDS. So there is an immense reservoir of particularly high risk patients. Nonetheless, most of the diseases are still being caused by a handful of viruses like 16, 18, 52. So I think, at least the ones we have to worry about today, are still manageable in number."

....

....

So why would they think this vaccine would "work", if the HPV is about as changeable, and pleomorphic as an influenza virus?

[mamakay]

So why would they think this vaccine would "work", if the HPV is about as changeable, and pleomorphic as an influenza virus?

Well that's a really good question.

That's a very, very, very interesting link, btw.
I read it quite a while back and will never forget it.

[menudo]

I think HPV is a joke of sorts. Yeah it exists, I have even been diagnosed of those "cancer causing strains" although now I test negative. It is not just an STD, it is as much of an std as a common cold. Sure you can get it from sex, but you can get it many other ways too. I personally feel it is a ploy to get more $$ and make us more doctor dependant.

[Gitti]

: ....




.