A new study in the journal Pediatrics indicates that human papillomavirus (HPV) is so common that all girls ages 11 to 25 years old should be vaccinated against it, regardless of their sexual experience.
Some varieties of HPV lead to genital warts or cervical cancer, although the virus usually goes away on its own. Because the virus is transmitted through sexual contact, many parents of young adolescent girls are reluctant to have their daughters vaccinated because the girls are not sexually active.
However, researchers at the University of Michigan who studied the sexual behaviors of 3,180 adolescent girls found no links between being infected and the number of sexual partners, the use of drug, alcohol and cigarettes, or having sex while intoxicated.
"You really can't pick out one or two behaviors that predict if you've been exposed to HPV," said the study's author, Dr. Amanda Dempsey. "It is just so common and so easily transmitted from person to person that it doesn't take more than one partner to get exposed."
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