HPV stands for Human Papillomavirus, it is the most common sexually transmitted viral infection worldwide (1, 2). You don’t have to have sex to get HPV, it can be passed via skin-to-skin contact (3).

There are many types of HPV. “Low risk” HPVs can cause genital, anal and oral warts. But “high-risk” HPVs can cause genital, anal and oral cancers (4). HPV causes a large majority of cervical cancer (1).

The good news is we have extremely effective and safe vaccines to tackle HPV (5)!

In Canada, we approved three protein-based vaccines against HPV:

• Cervarix®,
• Gardasil® and
• Gardasil®9.

Cervarix® prevents cervical cancer and Gardasil® and Gardasil®9 prevent infection, warts, cervical cancer, and noncervical cancers (6). We vaccinate children to ensure the best protection. But if you missed out, you may still be eligible (7)! Females 9-45 and males 9-26 can get the vaccine. Even if a person is already infected with one or more types of HPV, the vaccine can still provide protection against the other HPV types (6).

No matter sex, gender, or sexual orientation, if you are eligible, get vaccinated against HPV!
HPV vaccines protect you and help reduce transmission in the population (7, 8).

References: https://tinyurl.com/SUF-HPV