HPV An Increasing Epidemic among the Nations Youth - Assignment Example

As such, the article that will be analyzed in this short paper is entitled, “A Review of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Infection and HPV Vaccine–Related Attitudes and Sexual Behaviors Among College-Aged Women in the United States”. Unlike other STDs, HPV does not have a current cure as it cannot be treated with anti-biotic other means. Similarly, a great number of those that are infected, both male and female, do not know that they have the disease to begin with. This unfortunate fact combines to make HPV a very silent and unknown disease.

Although there are over 40 different strains of the virus, the good news is that only around 3 of these strains actually cause cancer(Ratanasiripong 2012). The following brief analysis will examine several journal articles to help to draw inference regarding HPV and the current ways that it is understood, how it spreads, how it could potentially be treated, and the effects that is has on the infected over the long term. Cause and Severity: The article which was used for this analysis reviews the means by which HPV is spread and detected.

However, the article also makes important mention of the fact that HPV is becoming a more and more prominent disease in the United States due to the fact that 1 in 4 young women are carriers; oftentimes unknown. Furthermore, this transmission invariably occurs as a result of sexual intercourse where the genitals come in contact with one another. Although the disease is primarily a skin virus, it takes up residence inside the vagina where it oftentimes resides for years prior to detection. The reason that the disease can eventually cause cancer is due to the fact that it continues to inflame and irritate areas of sub dermal skin within the vagina and has the compound effect of causing these persistently irritated areas of skin to begin the harmful process of mutation.

As such, once mutation of the skin cells begins it invariably and exponentially increases the likelihood that a form of cancer will eventually develop. Due to the fact that the disease is currently incurable, this persistent irritation is likely to eventually lead to cancer within the patient. Likewise, it should be noted that HPV can also affect men and cause the same debilitating health concerns as women; however, as of yet, the disease is all but undetectable in men. Intervention: As such, the article focuses on the preventative side of HPV by encouraging the HPV vaccine.

Although the vaccine is new, it does protect against some of the more harmful varieties of the disease. However, one definite drawback is the fact that the vaccine is not all inclusive and just because the patient has been exposed to the vaccine is no guarantee that they will not develop a harmful variety of HPV. Furthermore, the study focuses on the fact that oftentimes HPV will go away on its own (meaning that the human immune system can oftentimes successfully neutralize the threat). Although this does not happen in all cases, maintaining a healthy diet with a proper balance of rest and nutrition greatly increase the chances that the virus will be defeated by the body’s immune system (Kim 2012).

Although the disease does not have the same stigma that diseases such as herpes and/or syphilis or HIV have, it can be nonetheless deadly (Gyllensten et al 2011). As such, the article works to raise awareness that even though the disease