By Olaitan Oye-Adeitan
It slips in stealthily and finds a hiding place in the body of its host.
It stays there quietly without giving its host the faintest idea a stranger is living in it.
But, it has a mission which is very deadly and doesn’t play up early until it is fully accomplished.
This is when it has begun ravaging the body of its host.
That is when its identity is detected upon investigation.
It is the Human Papiloma Virus, HPV.
HPV is a sexually transmitted infection and the leading cause of cervical cancer.
Studies reveal that you can get HPV by having vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has the virus. A person with HPV can pass the infection to someone even when they have no signs or symptoms.
As explained by an Obstetrics Gynecologist based in the US, Dr Nelson Alawode, Cervical Cancer is not genetic, it is caused by HPV. “This same virus will cause infection in the cervix, it will cause infection in the throat and it affect the rectum. It is the second most common cancer among women in Nigeria and leading cause of cancer deaths among women between 15 and 44”.Dr Alawode said.
According to the statistics given by the Obstetrics/ Gynecologist, it is estimated that about 18.4 percent of women may have the disease.
However because HPV is often linked with the cervix, many people do not know HPV causes throat infection that leads to throat cancer, known as oropharyngeal cancer (the area of the tonsils and back of the throat.
Statistics show that those who engage in oral sex are more likely to develop oropharyngeal cancer than those who do not practise oral sex. Dr Alawode explained that this type of cancer is caused by HPV through oral sex.“If you decide to engage in oral sex, you are eligible to have throat infection which can lead to throat cancer and if you engage in rectal sex, you are eligible to have rectal infection which can lead to rectal cancer”. Dr Alawode explained.
How Oral HPV is Transmitted
HPV is sexually transmitted. A person performing oral sex on a partner with genital HPV can contract the virus in their mouth, or a person with oral HPV can pass it to a partner’s genital area.
What this means is that, when the genitals of an infected partner comes in contact with the mouth, throat or lips of the partner(s) involved in oral sex, Oral HPV is transmitted.
Quoting Dr Alawode, “The HPV virus can lodge in the urethra, scrotum or any part of the genitals and shed out through sexual activity which is not seen with the naked eye, to the throat, resulting in the infection that causes oral cancer”.
ICYMI:What You Don’t Know About HPV
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Who is At Risk
Both men and women with multiple sexual partners are at risk.
Dr Alawode unveiled the mask saying,”God created sex and it’s good in the context of marriage, i.e, between a man and a woman. If you as a man have a wife and that’s the only person you have affair with, no troubles.But if you decide to engage with multiple sexual partners, there are consequences”.
Shocking Revelation!
The gynecologist further explained that the body’s risk assessment for Sexually Transmitted Infections is not linear. He said, “If a man has been with five women outside marriage, and those women also have multiple partners, the body essentially ‘sees’ a broader network of having come into contact with forty one partners. Likewise, if you’re exposed to twelve partners and the twelve also behave like you, the body ‘sees’ it as having been in sexual contact with four thousand people”.
More Truth Unveiled About HPV
Unlike other Sexually Transmitted Infections such as Gonorrhea, Syphilis and Chlamydia,which can be treated with antibiotics, because they are bacterial infections, Dr Alawode made it clear that HPV could not be treated with antibiotics because it is a viral infection.
Does HPV Show Symptoms?
” You want to know the truth”? Dr Alawode asked?
He responded, “Majority of the time, there are no symptoms and by the time you get symptoms, it’s probably very bad,it would have got out of hands, bad vaginal discharge, mouth odour.
Any Solution?
In the words of Dr Alawode, “Prevention is better than cure.I will recommend that Nigeria should encourage a national campaign on HPV vaccine. The vaccine was introduced in 2006. It has worked well in Brazil, Mexico and Netherlands. Girls and boys between the ages of 9- 14 should be vaccinated against HPV.
There’s need to increase our surveillance because there are a hundred types of HPV. The vaccine is good because they make it go after nine of the most prevalent viruses found in the cancer cells especially 16, 18, 51,33, 45,53, 55 among others”. The Gynecologist advised”.
He equally urged people to respect God’s original plan for marriage which is a man and a woman and remain faithful, emphasizing that having multiple sexual partners increases the risk of contracting HPV.
Dr Nelson AdereminAlawode is a highly esteemed Obstetrics/Gynaecologist with over thirty years of medical mastery.
He works at MedStar Health, a major healthcare provider in Maryland, Washington D.C., USA.
You can get to know Dr Alawode more via his website, https://www.myhealth-mylife.org
