What is HPV? What are the health effects? HPV stands for Human Papilloma Virus, and there are more than 100 types of HPV, which are classified into 2 groups: low-risk and high-risk, depending on whether the virus causes precancerous or cancerous lesions. Low-risk HPV only causes benign lesions such as condyloma acuminata and flat warts. High-risk HPV contains the oncogenome, which can cause cancerous lesions or even progress to cancer in the vulva, vagina, cervix and anus. Wang Xibo, Department of Gynecology, Weifang People’s Hospital Is HPV infection common? What is the end of the infection? In fact, HPV is infection is very common, the highest rate of infection is between the ages of 20-25 and 30-39, which means that HPV infection is very common in young women of childbearing age. The majority of HPV infections are transient and do not require any treatment and can be cleared by the body’s immunity alone. In general, the clearance time for low-risk HPV infections is about 8 months and for high-risk HPV infections is about 13 months. Only a small percentage of HPV will cause lesions, and if high-risk HPV infection persists it may cause precancerous lesions. Therefore, academician Lang Jinghe of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Peking Union Medical College Hospital has a very eloquent statement on cancerous lesions/cancer caused by HPV infection, which is “HPV infection causing tumor is an incidental event caused by a common infection”. What are the types of HPV infection? There are three types of HPV infection, namely latent, subclinical and clinical, and the type of HPV infection determines the principles of treatment. Latent infection: the virus can be detected, but no signs of the virus causing lesions can be found. Subclinical infection: the virus can be detected, and special tests can reveal manifestations of the infection that are not visible to the naked eye, but there are no lesions that can be detected by the naked eye and no evidence of malignancy on pathological examination. Clinical infection: lesions that can be seen by the naked eye are present, or lesions are found on pathological examination. Most HPV infections are cleared by the body’s immunity during the latent and subclinical stages of infection. The principle of treatment for HPV infection is “treat the disease, not the virus”! For lesions that are not visually or pathologically confirmed, there is no need for treatment at all. In other words, treatment is only needed if there are visible lesions (e.g. condyloma acuminatum) or pathologically confirmed lesions (e.g. CIN). Corresponding to the types of HPV infection mentioned above, it is latent infection and subclinical infection that do not require treatment.