What Is HPV? How to Choose HPV Vaccine?

Today is March 4th, the International HPV Awareness Day. Let us learn about HPV together.

What is HPV?

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the cause of 99.7% cervical cancers. However, people who are infected with HPV have a very low (continuous infection) probability of causing cervical cancer. HPV will not affect normal life. Many people will not have obvious physical abnormalities in the early stage of infection, and they will not be found until the physical examination.

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The vast majority of HPV is transmitted through sexual behavior, and a very few are transmitted through non-sexual behavior, such as exposure to viral contaminants, patient secretions, traumatic infections, and mother-to-child infections.

In 2020, for the first time, 194 countries across the world pledged to eliminate a type of cancer, which is cervical cancer. In order to effectively prevent the occurrence of cervical cancer, by 2030, 90% of girls in the world will have to complete HPV vaccination before the age of 15.

HPV infection can lead to cervical cancer?

Since the existing HPV vaccine is a preventive vaccine, it can only effectively prevent infections that have not occurred, and cannot eliminate existing infections or treat HPV-related diseases. Vaccination of HPV vaccine before the first sex can block the spread of HPV to the greatest extent.

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Not all HPV viruses cause cervical cancer. There are more than 200 types of HPV virus, which can be divided into high-risk type and low-risk type according to different carcinogenicity. Studies have shown that infection with high-risk HPV is highly correlated with the occurrence of cervical cancer. In China, 84.5% of cervical cancers are caused by the high-risk HPV16/18 virus. Therefore, it can effectively prevent the continuous infection of HPV16/18 virus or reduce the risk of cervical cancer by 84.5%.

Which HPV vaccine should I choose?

The bivalent/tetravalent HPV vaccine is suitable for women between 9 and 45 years old;

The nine-valent HPV vaccine is suitable for women between 16 and 26 years of age.

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According to the 2017 WHO position paper, from a public health perspective, bivalent, quadrivalent and ninth-valent HPV vaccines can provide the same immunogenicity and protective efficacy in preventing HPV16/18-related cervical cancer. The sooner the HPV vaccine is vaccinated, the better.

What else needs to be done after HPV vaccination?

Being vaccinated with HPV vaccine does not mean that you can "get it right once and for all." The vaccine is only a primary prevention and control. After vaccination, you still need to do a secondary prevention and control-HPV testing plus TCT combined screening.

Women can be screened for TCT once when they are 21 years old. If the results are normal, they can be screened for a second time after 3 years until they are 30 years old.

For women under 30, HPV testing is not recommended.

For women after the age of 30, there are two options:

A. If the results of the TCT screening are normal, a TCT check will be done every 3 years;

B. Do TCT+HPV joint inspection every 5 years. It is not recommended to do HPV testing alone.

If all previous TCT screenings are normal, consider stopping screening at around 65 years of age.

What is the difference between HPV testing and TCT screening?

HPV testing is aimed at whether there is a virus in the cervix and the possibility of disease, to a certain extent, to avoid the risk of missed diagnosis.

TCT screening is aimed at whether the cells have changed or whether they have precancerous lesions, to a certain extent, to avoid the risk of misdiagnosis.