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Disease information

Virus or bacteria

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are caused by a virus. This virus can infect the skin or genital area. It can also infect the lining of surfaces in the throat, cervix or anal regions.

How it spreads

• Genital to genital contact (most often, but not always during sex)
• Oral to genital contact

Eight of 10 susceptible people will be exposed to HPV within the first 5 years of becoming sexually active. There is a chance that the virus will become a chronic infection for these people and lead to cancer years later.

Symptoms

Infection with no symptoms

• Most HPV infections clear on their own without a person ever knowing they were infected.

Infection with symptoms

• Genital warts
• Anal warts

Chronic infections

• No symptoms, but the virus continues to replicate for months or years. The ongoing replication of the virus eventually leads to precancerous and cancerous changes in the infected cells.

Typical disease timeline

HPV infections typically last for about 6 months before clearing on their own.

Possible complications

• Cervical cancer
• Head and neck cancer
• Penile cancer
• Anal cancer 
• Vulvar cancer
• Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP)
• Death (Every year, more than 33,000 people in the U.S. die from cancers caused by HPV.)

Other things to know

• Most HPV infections clear on their own without causing long-term health problems. But, some HPV infections persist, causing cervical, or other, cancers 20 to 25 years after the initial infection.
• About 1 of every 3 cancers associated with HPV occurs in males. Most of these cancers occur in the head and neck. This type of cancer is known as oropharyngeal cancer. Rates of this type of cancer are increasingly caused by HPV.
• Human papillomavirus only infects people.
• The HPV vaccine has the potential to prevent about 33,700 cases of cancer and between 4,000 and 5,000 deaths in men and women in the U.S. each year.

Vaccine information 

The HPV vaccine is used to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV). 

Vaccine type

• Recombinant vaccines

Vaccine side effects

Common

• Pain, redness or swelling at the injection site (20 to 90 of 100 recipients)
• Slight fever (10 to 13 of 100 recipients)

Rare

• Fainting (8 of 100,000 doses)

Very rare

• Serious allergic reaction (About 1 in 1,000,000 recipients)

Other things to know

Staying seated at the doctor's office for 15 minutes after receiving the HPV vaccine is recommended due to the risk of fainting. The risk of fainting after receipt of HPV vaccine is similar to that of other vaccines given during adolescence.

Reasons to get the HPV vaccine

• The HPV vaccine is the best way to prevent cancers caused by the HPV types in the vaccine.
• People who are sexually active can still benefit from the HPV vaccine because people have not typically been infected with all nine types that the vaccine protects against.
• Anyone — male or female — can develop HPV-associated cancers following long-term infections. 
• Use of the HPV vaccine has been found to decrease the spread of HPV in the community.
• The HPV vaccine is safe.