Secondary school students knowledge and awareness of HPV infections and vaccine.

摘要

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a family of viruses that are etiologically linked to number of disease conditions such as cancers, warts and condylomas even if the majority of the HPV infections are asymptomatic and clear without medical intervention (Ragin et al. 2009; Allen et al., 2009). The HPV infections are the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world (Allen et al., 2009), and particularly affect sexually active young individuals (Signorelli, 2007). High risk human papillomavirus subtypes 16,18, 31, 33 and 45 are associated with 99.7% of all cervical cancers (Signorelli, 2007; Ault, 2006; Rosini et al., 2007). The HPV vaccine represents a major step toward the prevention of cervical cancer (Ragin et al., 2009) and is recommended for girls aged between 11 and 12 (Allen et al., 2009) as it prevents infections from HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 and promises to dramatically reduce the incidence of HPV infection, genital warts, and cytological abnormalities.