HPV (Human Papillomavirus)

Key disease facts

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a family of viruses which cause a range of serious diseases including cervical cancer and mouth cancer. There are approximately 100 types of HPV. Around 40 types infect the genital tract and are associated with genital warts and various types of cancer in men and women.

Over 99% of cervical cancers are caused by HPV infection. Two high-risk types, HPV 16 and HPV 18, are responsible for nearly 75% of all cervical cancers in Europe.

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer among women who are 15 to 34 years old. Unlike most cancers, it is mainly a disease of the young, with 62% of cases occurring in women who are less than 50 years old.

Worldwide, cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer in women with an estimated 604,000 new cases and 342,000 deaths from cervical cancer in 2020. About 90% of these occur in low- and middle-income countries.

However, studies looking at the percentage of women diagnosed with cervical abnormalities have shown a marked reduction since the introduction of the HPV vaccination programme. See more information below.

Before vaccination started in 2009, HPV was the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the UK.

What are the symptoms?

In most cases, HPV does not cause any symptoms and the infection often clears by itself. However, in some cases, HPV infection can cause cells to become abnormal. The diseases that result from these cell changes often do not show any symptoms until they are quite far advanced.

For example, HPV can cause genital warts, and these can take months to appear after getting HPV, and cancer often takes many years to develop after a person gets HPV.

HPV can also cause anal, oral, and genital cancers in men and women. Other types of HPV cause verrucas and warts on the skin.

How is it passed on?

What protection is available?

The HPV vaccine gives protection against the most high-risk strains of HPV, including ones which cause cervical, mouth and genital cancers.

The vaccine is available in the UK for boys and girls ages 11-14, with a catch-up programme for those who missed the vaccine in school but are still eligible to receive it.

Since April 2018 the HPV vaccine has also been offered to all men who have sex with men that are aged 45 or younger. This follows a successful pilot programme that has run since 2016. The vaccine is offered at routine check-ups at sexual health (GUM) clinics and HIV clinics. See the Public Health England news item.

Other individuals, such as those attending specialist sexual health services (SSHS) or HIV clinics who are deemed at risk, are often offered the HPV vaccine where considerable benefits are deemed.

Click here for an accessible text version of this infographic

More information about the disease

A 2021 study published in The Lancet has shown that the HPV vaccine has dramatically reduced cervical cancer rates by almost 90% in women in their 20s who were offered it at ages 12 to 13. Their findings show that the vaccines have almost eliminated cervical cancer in women born since Sept 1, 1995.

The World Health Organization has declared a global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer completely through vaccination and screening. Women who have been vaccinated must continue to take up the offer of cervical smear testing later in life so that other kinds of cervical cancer can be picked up.

HPV vaccine programmes around the world are currently being evaluated. Evidence from a recent study of 66 million young men and women showed an 83% reduction in high-risk HPV in teenage girls and 66% reduction in women aged 20-24.

The study also showed precancerous cervical lesions declined by 51% in teenage girls and 31% in women up to age 24 (Analysis of HPV Vaccine Effectiveness).

In the graph below, the prevalence of high-risk HPV types 16 and 18 has reduced with the increasing number of women who have received the vaccine in England. Studies have shown that protection against HPV lasts at least 10 years, and this is expected to be long-term.

Click here for an accessible text version of this graph

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673619302983

As the HPV vaccine is still new, we won’t know the full effect on rates of cervical cancer until those women who have received the vaccine are older. However, studies looking at the percentage of women diagnosed with cervical abnormalities have shown a marked reduction since the introduction of the vaccination programme.

The graph below shows the percentage of 20 year old women diagnosed with cervical abnormalities by their birth year. This shows that as vaccine uptake has increased with each birth year, cervical abnormalities have fallen.