Recently I watched a British documentary about the increase in throat cancer in men . The documentary stated that in terms of age the older male population with throat cancer is most likely due to smoking or second degree smoking while within younger male population it is due to the human papillomavirus (HPV).
What is HPV?
HPV is a virus that is transmitted sexually by skin to skin and or genital contact. There are over 100 different kinds of HPV and not all of them cause health problems. About 50% of people who are sexually active will be infected with HPV at some point but that does not mean that they will get cancer because not all of the types of HPV cause health problems. With over 100 different types of HPV some that cause health issues and others that don't resulting in most people not realising that they may have HPV due to their being no sign of it or it disappearing by itself.
There is no cure
WHAT! Sadly there are only treatments for the HPV induced health problems eg. Genital warts, cancer ( cervical, anal, throat...)...etc
In Botswana girls are vaccinated by government sponsored vaccination. This is in order to prevent future cervical cancer but unfortunately just because the female population is vaccinated doesn't mean that the male population is safe. Cancer often takes years to develop after a person is infected by HPV. So at face value the male Botswana population may seem safe but is actually in grave danger.
Fortunately the HPV vaccine is available but it is very costly and minimum wage population may have a harder time accessing the funds in order to protect themselves or their sons.
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Also people are not being educated about HPV and a lot of young people take part in risky sexual behavior which might not lead to pregnancy but may lead to a number of STI due to lack of knowledge.
But, at least article titles such as the following do catch people's attention
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Not trying to be inhumane but looking at how Botswana provides free health care to the public. If there is an increase in cancer due to HPV then more funds being used on healthcare resulting in reduced funding from education, defence, poverty irradiation...etc. If the result of the infection results in a sterile community the decrease in population with have a negative result in the overall growth and productivity of the nation.
Botswana already does so much for it's people but this is something for concern for our entire community.
For more information check out the following links:
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