[fr_freak]

One of the issues with the media coverage and arguments is they don't tell you that HPV is not just a sexually transmitted disease, there are other ways to catch HPV.

I'm not a medical professional or anything, but here goes: HPV is the family of viruses that cause warts. The various strains of HPV are specific to certain parts of the body. So, a wart on your nose is a strain of HPV, but that strain is not thought to be able to infect other parts of the body. So, even if there were..ahem... nose-to-genital contact, the wart on your nose would not infect the genitals. Now, even within the number of strains that do infect the genital area, only a specific few are thought to be associated with increased risk for cervical cancer (a couple of which this vaccine targets).

So, saying that so many strains of HPV can be transmitted by other than sexual contact is irrelevant to this situation. The only strains that cause genital warts (or increase risk for cervical cancer) ARE transmitted by genital-to-genital contact (although the possibility of an indirect transmission, such as sharing a towel, has been discussed).

[MeanWestTexan]

Deaths from cervical cancer (about 3,700 a year) are but one of the issues.

Cervical cancer is also, of course, one of, if the primary, the reasons for hysterectomies.

HPV also has implications in infertility --- unclear what, exactly, but in studies of people undergoing IVF, a woman who tested positive for HPV was 50% less likely to ultimately have a baby --- speculation is that the virus damages the lining of the uterus, making the placenta more likely to detach and/or not implant in the first place.