Infectious diseases, such as influenza and tuberculosis, kill millions every year. But an infectious disease can kill in another way: by causing cancer. The good news is that many of these infections are preventable or treatable.
HPV
The nine-valent HPV vaccine -- which targets nine different HPV strains -- could prevent about 3 in 4 HPV-associated cancers. However, only about half of all adolescents have completed the vaccine series. If everyone was fully vaccinated we could prevent some 32,100 cancers each year.
There's simply no way of knowing what anti-vaxxer RFK, Jr. will say on any given day. One day, he's comparing vaccines to the Holocaust. The next, he's helping spread cervical cancer.
The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 13,000 cervical cancers will be diagnosed in 2018. Of those, more than 3,000 women will die.
Cervical cancers stem from the Human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted infection. And it can be prevented with a cancer vaccine already in place. Yet, the rates of immunization among young adults are low.
Regardless of where one falls on the HPV vaccine debate, there's good news from Australia. New research shows that men who are unvaccinated for HPV are receiving protective benefits from the women who are vaccinated.
Each year the recommended childhood and adolescent vaccine schedules are reviewed, adjusted and approved. The 2017 revisions are now available, and here are some of the recent changes affecting everyone from infants to those up to the age.
When it comes to cancer, prevention is always preferred to diagnosis and treatment. Discuss HPV vaccination and your eligibility (as well as your kids' eligibility) with your doctor. A new study reveals poor vaccine rates and significant prevalence in males.
A rare genetic disorder that transforms a person's hands and feet, in particular, into tree-bark-like warts and cutaneous horns made news recently. It's truly out of the ordinary. So what's this all about?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its annual Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report, which reflects record highs in primary and secondary syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.
As with most politicized topics, science gets quickly drowned out by activists' hyperbole and exaggeration. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that the benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks, though it falls short of giving the procedure a blanket endorsement.
Roughly 1 in 3 women douche, but there is no good health reason to do so. Douching can change the makeup of the bacteria that normally live in the vagina, and it can even make women more susceptible to STDs. Now, researchers have added another concern: Douching appears to increase the risk of infection with HPV (human papillomavirus), which causes cervical cancer.
A new study in JAMA Oncology proves that a type of the human papillomavirus, known to cause cervical and anal cancer, also causes cancers of the throat and head and neck. The proof of this revelation came via a simple, yet elegant method.