Grant: Operating Grant

Genital infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection today. Most of the time, such infections are not noticed or cause only external warts. Although benign, warts are difficult to treat and lead to social stigmatization. However, there is a more ominous health consequence of HPV infection: cancer of the uterine cervix, a disease that can be fatal in about 40% of the women who are affected by it. Most HPV infections will not lead to cervical cancer, only those that involve certain types of this virus and that persist for a long time. Testing for HPV is a novel screening strategy that has the potential to detect more cases of precancerous cervical lesions than the traditional Pap test. As more and more physicians order these tests, there is increased awareness of how common such infections are among Canadian women (depending on age, 15%-40% have them). Women, their partners, and their physicians are left with many unanswered questions on how the infection is transmitted, how much risk there is after a sexual encounter, and what measures of protection can be achieved. This project will be the first in Canada to try to find answers to these questions.