Many years ago the term "virus" was used to describe any disease or infectious agent. Today with the development of medicine, its inventions and thousands of researches that have been carried out on viral diseases, the medical community has isolated and separated specific characteristics and functions of viruses that enter different areas of the human body (internally and externally). They remain for varying lengths of time in the body, sometimes in a dormant state and are activated when the immune system allows it.
One such virus is HPV (HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS) or the human papillomavirus that causes the well-known genital warts, one of the most highly contagious diseases of our time. It is considered a sexually transmitted disease, since it mainly affects the skin area around the genitals, altering the mucous membranes. They affect both men and women, mainly of reproductive age, but mature or infantile ones are not excluded, since they can also be transmitted during childbirth from the mother to the newborn.
Form and classic symptoms
If someone observes the warts with the naked eye, they think they are cauliflower-shaped moles. The woman displays them on the labia minora or labia majora, the vagina, the clitoris and the surrounding area of the anus.
The incubation time, which is the time it takes for the virus to enter the body until it manifests, varies from person to person. For example, in vulnerable people with low immune defenses, the virus can manifest itself after 2-3 weeks.
In other cases, the virus can remain, without manifesting symptoms, for a long time or for the entire life of the sufferer.
The classic symptoms that can be observed, depending on the degree of danger that the warts appear, are:
- Intense or mild itching in the respective area
- Cervical or vaginal bleeding
- A large amount of vaginal discharge
- Depression, especially in people who develop anal warts
Diseases caused by HPV
DISEASE TYPE OF HPV
Just Warts
Plantar warts
Cutaneous warts
Genetic Warts
Dysplasias (cancer) of genital organs, 68,70,73,82,85
Oral Endoepithelial Hyperplasia
Oral warts
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/)
TYPE OF HPV
2,7
1,2,4
3,10
6,11,40,42,43,44,55,61,70,72,81,83,84,89
16,18,31,33,35,39,45,51,52,53,56,58,59,66, 68,70,73,82,85
13,32
6,7,11,16,32
Transmission Modes
It is necessary to make it clear that every sexually active woman is likely to contract the virus.
80%, in fact, at least once in their lives have contracted an infection with one of the 100 or so strains that have emerged from HPV (40 of which are sexually transmitted).
The modes of transmission are:
- Purely sexual transmission
- From the skin contact of the genital area, even if a condom is used
- From penetration, no condom
- From anal contact
- From oral contact
- From sex aids (e.g. vibrators)
- Non-sexual transmission (rare)
- From mother to child, during childbirth, at a rate of 4%
- From self-inoculation, the transmission of a microbe from one area of the body to another (e.g. through shaving)
Warts and diagnosis
The first test recommended by the gynecologist, as an initial approach, is the Pap test (screening test), which gives a 90% chance of whether the woman has contracted the virus.
If the doctor suspects that something is going on, observing this test, then a colposcopy or guided selective biopsy is recommended.
Warts and uterine cancer
The HPV virus has been certified as the first virus that can cause cancer in humans.
Therefore, it is possible to cause carcinogenesis because it causes mutations in the cells and at the same time inactivates the tumor protective mechanisms, which every woman and man have in order to protect themselves from infections.
Considering that approximately 400,000 women are diagnosed with uterine cancer each year, it is easy for some of them to have carcinogenesis from some type of HPV that is responsible for uterine cancer.
Women who, due to heredity or other factors, have an increased risk of developing uterine cancer, if they develop warts, they are twice as likely to develop cancer.
Therapeutic approach
The treatments that fight and dislocate warts are divided into two categories, from which the doctor is the one who chooses which one each patient responds to:
Treatments that, following the order of a gynecologist, are applied by the patient herself.