Natural History of HPV

All women who are sexually active are at risk of infection with HPV.  Infection with the virus occurs through genital skin-to-skin contact (Schiffman and Kjaer 2003).

The risk of acquiring an HPV infection starts from the first relationship with a partner and continues throughout a woman’s sexually active life.  A number of co-factors can play a role in HPV infections, including, for example, smoking and the number of her partner’s previous partners (Franceschi 2005).

Although most infections resolve spontaneously, some persist.  Persistent infection with oncogenic HPV begins the process of cellular changes and abnormalities that may lead to cervical cancer.  As there are no symptoms in the early stages of persistent infection, it is unlikely that a woman would be aware of these abnormalities (Conway 1996).

Prior infection with HPV usually does not provide women with sufficient immunity against subsequent infections or reduce the risk of an HPV infection becoming persistent (de Jong et al 2004; Baseman and Koutsky 2005).

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