The New Year is approaching, Miss Li received a New Year’s gift from her boyfriend – a full health checkup. The examination report showed that Ms. Li tested positive for HPV. She was shocked to learn that human papillomavirus (HPV) is the “culprit” of cervical cancer, and whether her positive test means she has cervical cancer? Cervical cancer is the only malignant tumor with a clear cause, and one of the winners of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Harald K. Churr, of the German Cancer Research Center, has been the subject of a study on cervical cancer. Trull? In his research, Professor Hausen, confirmed the link between cervical cancer and HPV and concluded that almost all cervical cancers are caused by HPV. At this point, an equivalence was drawn between cervical cancer and the infectious disease. On the surface of the cervix is a layer of armor-like cells, squamous cells, which, along with cervical mucus, protect a woman’s cervix to maintain normalcy. However, in less than 10% of women, HPV is not completely removed from the body, so it integrates with the DNA of the squamous cells of the cervix, changing the nature of the squamous cells and slowly eroding the normal cervix. The main way of HPV transmission is through sexual intercourse. During sexual intercourse, the mucous membrane is more or less slightly damaged, and as long as one party carries HPV, the virus can easily invade the mucous membrane of the reproductive tract of the other party. Therefore, as long as there is sexual intercourse, it is possible to be infected with HPV virus. The more sexually active you are and the more sexual partners you have, the greater the probability of infection. There are countless opportunities for women to be infected by HPV during their lifetime. According to statistics, 80% of women have been infected with HPV. It is worth noting that although about 90% of precancerous lesions of cervical cancer can be detected as positive for HPV, it does not mean that after being infected with HPV, you are doomed to cervical cancer. Even when you see “HPV positive” on the report card, you still don’t have to panic. Only a very small number of high-risk HPV viruses are related to cervical cancer, while hundreds of others are paper tigers; moreover, most women’s own immune system can “PK” the virus and it is a transient carrier. In less than 10% of cases, the immune system unfortunately loses the PK race, and the persistent HPV virus is able to flaunt its power and erode the normal cervical cells, leading to atypical cell proliferation and cervical cancer. Nowadays, what makes many women more hopeful is that the cervical cancer vaccine is available and has been approved for marketing in some European and American countries and regions. This is the only vaccine that has been successfully developed to prevent malignant tumors. Of the nearly 100 subtypes of HPV, 15 are associated with the development of cervical cancer, with types 16 and 18 being the most predominant (high-risk types). In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the recommendation to market a vaccine for cervical cancer. This means that mankind’s fight against cancer is about to enter an epoch-making new phase. It is recommended that women should be vaccinated against cervical cancer before they have their first sexual intercourse. Widely speaking, it is best to have a universal vaccination at a young age, like the hepatitis B vaccine, which is the safest for girls. However, even after vaccination, cervical screening should not be abandoned because the cervical cancer vaccine covers the major pathogenic subtypes of HPV and there can still be other subtypes that cause disease. Therefore, let’s start by reducing HPV infection (using condoms during sex is a good way to reduce HPV infection) and insist on cervical screening to keep this killer of cervical cancer out of the “womb”.