Bug Breakfast in the Bulletin: The early impact of the National HPV Vaccination Program

Abstract

The human papillomavirus (HPV) family are a group of DNA viruses that are diverse and ubiquitous. There are about 100HPV genotypes known to infect humans, of which about 40 infect the anogenital epithelium. These genotypes can be further divided into risk categories depending on their association with cancer. Low-risk genotypes (such as HPV 6 and 11) are responsible for over 90% of genital warts and high-risk genotypes (such as HPV 16 and 18) are responsible for 70–80% of cervical, 85–90% of anal, about 50% of penile and 40–70% of vulvovaginal cancers.