http://www.newsweek.com/id/217554?from=rss

The obese make an easy target for our judgemental minds, but even cancer patients have not been exempt. Did they smoke? Did they get screened as often as they should have? "We tend to adjust our level of sympathy based on these factors," says Edward Kim, a lung oncologist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. "It's too frightening to acknowledge that smoking isn't the only way to get lung cancer." In fact Kim says, 15 percent of lung cancer patients never pick up a cigarette and the vast majority of smokers never develop lung tumors. The same goes for neck and throat cancer. Not too long ago, both were thought to be triggered by heavy smoking and too much alcohol; it turns out they're caused by HPV, a virus that infects 20 million Americans but only turns cancerous in some.

Probably deserves to be in the vaccination thread.

But the whole article is good reading.

Mind you, I have had a few patients who have has HSV lesions in their lungs. I have had one patient with HSV lesions in/on his brain. Some people still think that if you get HSV is only an STD. You are going to have work hard to convince me as to how someone's cock got in there.

The HPV virus is allittle interesting with the 90 or so iterations of it. Some you can see, warts and lesions. Similar to herpes, with it's properties, also with non visible strains. But, there are also the fluid variations of the virus, some of which can and do get in your bloodstream, make lesions and stuff in random body parts. I think the figure was like 60% of people in the United States has at least one strain.

The 20 million for HPV in the quote is most likely completely wrong.

The numbers I have read, 90% of American adults carry HPV.

60% of adult Americans carry HSV.
25% is the cited of adult Americans with genital HSV.

I am not going to get into a discussion about strains.

It is unethical to study humans to distinquish the actual transmission of say oral HSV to genital HSV. We only call them different strains because of social stigma.

If you could get a study together and funded.
Where you have 1000 humans with ONLY oral HSV.
And 1000 humans with NO HSV at all(fat chance),,,

And have group A only perform fellatio and cunnilingus on group B, to see if it infects the genitalia of group B...I will buy you a round trip ticket to Germany/Argentina to pick up your Doctor Mengele award in Bioscience.

Acyclovir does not care where you have your HSV hanging out. Lungs, acyclovir. Penis, acyclovir. Brain, acyclovir. Lips, acyclovir. Shingles and chickenpox, acyclovir.

The strains are so close that the same med kills all HSV, it does not matter what strain or kind. Implies that a vaccine can be broad acting as well. Of course the mechanism of action is different than how your immune system works. But the implication is still there.

So is the social stigma and ignorance.