Human papillomavirus

• Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection.
• The papillomaviruses are specifically associated with proliferative lesions.
  
• The virus can multiply only in differentiating keratinocytes.
  
• The proliferative lesions are mainly benign, giving rise to warts of the skin and mucosa.
• However, certain types of human papillomavirus are strongly associated with the development of carcinoma.
• The papillomaviruses have a close association with cancer of the uterine cervix; HPV types 18, 31, 33 and 45 are found but the principal type is HPV16, associated with at least 90 percent of cervical tumors. Cancer of the uterine cervix is associated with sexual transmission of an infecting agent presumably papillomaviruses.
  
• The virus is also found in vulval tumors. Epidermodysplasia verruciformis, a tumor of the skin, is strongly associated with several different human papillomaviruses but mainly types 5 and 8.

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