The human papillomavirus (HPV) is considered a virus, which was discovered in the early 1980s. It creates
epithelial tumors of the mucous membranes and skin. HPV infection can manifest itself differently depending to
the area of the body it affects. It can affect different parts of the human anatomy though there are more than
forty types of HPV that can infect the genital area of women and men. Some conditions associated with HPV
include but are not limited to anal cancer, anogenital warts, nonanogenital mucosa disease (such as respiratory
papillomas and oral warts), and cervical disease. Most of the physical manifestation include papules on the
shaft of the penis, keratotic wars on the dry surface on dry surfaces (such as the labia majora), amongst
others. Diagnosis of external genital warts and most of the cutaneous types can be done through application of
acetic acid and biopsy or clinical analysis. Lab studies can be done to assist in diagnosis include HPV DNA
testing, Cervical cytologic testing with the Papanicolaou (Pap) test to screen for cervical neoplasia, and
colposcopy done in conjunction with the acetic acid test. All the medicines used to treat HPV are applied
topically, though they should not be used to treat some types (such as verrucous carcinoma and dysplastic
lesions) or applied to mucosal surfaces. Two broad medications that have proven to be effective are cytotoxic
agents and immune response modifies (i.e. interferon alfa). Surgical options can also be explored if a large
number of warts are present or the affected area is large. HPV infects more than fifty percent of sexually active
adults. Treatment of the disease can be lengthy and difficult. Therefore, it is important to educate patients of
the risk of infection and sexual prevention is a viable way to prevent infection. The HPV vaccine (Gardasil 9),
which was approved in 2014, is shown to lower the risk of certain precancerous lesions and cancers for
individuals ages 9-45. Virulence factors of HPV include E6 & E7, which are proteins with the ability of
inactivating tumor suppressor proteins. This can lead to the development of caner uncontrolled cell division
(Gearhart, 2020).