Between the commercials & decades of preventative measures available to people as young as teenagers, why isn’t general causation info more transparent?
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The virus messes with your cells, which causes your cells’ DNA to become messed up. The signals telling your cells to not divide uncontrollably are not as strong. That’s the start of progression to cancer.
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HPV is the virus that causes warts. Most strains of it are harmless, only a few have the potential to cause cancer.
HPV infects skin cells and spreads when dead skin cells fall off. So it’s motivated to make a lot of skin cells and it tricks the cells into dividing more (this creates a wart). On top of that HPV can integrate into the genome which causes mutations. Increased cell division + mutations is a recipe for cancer (but not a guarantee).
Fortunately there is a vaccine that can protect against the harmful strains.
HPV is the virus that causes warts. Most strains of it are harmless, only a few have the potential to cause cancer.
HPV infects skin cells and spreads when dead skin cells fall off. So it’s motivated to make a lot of skin cells and it tricks the cells into dividing more (this creates a wart). On top of that HPV can integrate into the genome which causes mutations. Increased cell division + mutations is a recipe for cancer (but not a guarantee).
Fortunately there is a vaccine that can protect against the harmful strains.
Another relevant element to this is people often misunderstand what makes something an STI. Think of it less as “an infection transmitted by sex” and more as “an infection that can be transmitted by sex”. Plenty of STI’s can be caught from everything from skin to skin contact, to infected water, to even uncooked food or animal bites!
HPV is the virus that causes warts. Most strains of it are harmless, only a few have the potential to cause cancer.
HPV infects skin cells and spreads when dead skin cells fall off. So it’s motivated to make a lot of skin cells and it tricks the cells into dividing more (this creates a wart). On top of that HPV can integrate into the genome which causes mutations. Increased cell division + mutations is a recipe for cancer (but not a guarantee).
Fortunately there is a vaccine that can protect against the harmful strains.
Another relevant element to this is people often misunderstand what makes something an STI. Think of it less as “an infection transmitted by sex” and more as “an infection that can be transmitted by sex”. Plenty of STI’s can be caught from everything from skin to skin contact, to infected water, to even uncooked food or animal bites!
Another relevant element to this is people often misunderstand what makes something an STI. Think of it less as “an infection transmitted by sex” and more as “an infection that can be transmitted by sex”. Plenty of STI’s can be caught from everything from skin to skin contact, to infected water, to even uncooked food or animal bites!
HPV is a virus. Viruses reproduce by sneaking into your cells and changing how they reproduce.
Viruses don’t just make the cells make more of the virus, they actually leave behind information too. That left behind information can prevent the cell from shutting down if something goes wrong.
All cancer is a collection of cells that are dividing uncontrollably. HPV just enables that in certain cell types, which are found in the mouth and reproductive organs. Luckily, the virus doesn’t spread very fast, so the damage is mainly limited to places with direct contact to the infected fluids.
HPV is a virus. Viruses reproduce by sneaking into your cells and changing how they reproduce.
Viruses don’t just make the cells make more of the virus, they actually leave behind information too. That left behind information can prevent the cell from shutting down if something goes wrong.
All cancer is a collection of cells that are dividing uncontrollably. HPV just enables that in certain cell types, which are found in the mouth and reproductive organs. Luckily, the virus doesn’t spread very fast, so the damage is mainly limited to places with direct contact to the infected fluids.
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