How is the HPV virus contracted?

It's a medical myth that human papillomavirus (HPV) is spread only through sexual contact. Diane Harper, MD, MPH, MS, sets the record straight on the many ways the HPV virus can infect people of all ages.

Transcript

00:00

The only way you can get an HPV virus is if you come into contact with another human being. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:16

It is a skin-to-skin contact virus. It's one skin surface rubbing against another skin surface.

00:22

And that's what allows that little viral particle to jump off of one skin and into the other. Because HPV is a skin-to-skin contact infection,

00:31

most often it comes from sexual activity. But that isn't always the case. You can have infection from any kind of skin-to-skin contact,

00:39

whether that's fingers or whether it's genitals. We even know that, underneath the fingernails,

00:46

in that soft, moist area, we have that same kind of HPV that infects the genitals. We know that HPV happens mostly by sexual transmission,

00:55

but it can be from any kind of skin-to-skin transmission. Another myth about HPV infection is that you only get it

01:03

because of sexual transmission. We know that about 10% of virgins have HPV infections,

01:09

and they've never had any kind of sexual contact. We also know that our younger children, from the age of birth

01:16

through the age of 11 years, about 10% to 15% of those have these high-risk HPV infections.

01:23

So there isn't any one age at which our population doesn't already have HPV.

01:30

It's very, very common. [AUDIO LOGO]