Human Papillomavirus

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the US, and often has no symptoms. Nearly all sexually active people get HPV at some point in their lives. There are many different types of HPV. Some types can cause health problems including genital warts and cancers. HPV causes about 5% of cancers worldwide, including cervical cancer and rising cases of oral, throat and anal cancers. An HPV vaccine is available to women and men up to the age of 45 to prevent infection, but there are currently no approved medicines to treat infection. Some therapies are available to treat precancers or cancers caused by HPV infection. In the United States approximately 200,000 women are diagnosed with HPV-related cancer annually, and 4,000 die from the disease. NIAID conducts and supports research to better understand papillomaviruses, develop new diagnostics that can detect HPV infection more accurately and rapidly, find new treatments (i.e., antivirals and novel targets for therapeutic development against HPV associated disease), and examine current HPV prevention strategies and the impact of behavior and age on HPV infection.