Lindsey Bickers Bock, a health education specialist at Student Health, has been the major proponent of educating the student body about human papillomavirus (HPV)--a sexually transmitted disease that nearly two-thirds of college students have contracted by the time they graduate. The FDA has recently approved a vaccine that is 99.8 percent effective in preventing the disease, and Bickers Bock is responsible for coordinating education efforts about the vaccine on campus. TV's Sophia Peters sat down with Bickers Bock to talk sex-kinda.
TV: How easy is HPV to contract? Can you get it from a toilet seat? Can you get it from protected sex?
LB: It is a very prevalent sexually transmitted disease, so sexually active people will come into contact with it frequently. Also, HPV infects the whole genital area, so while there is a decreased chance of transmission when you use a condom, it is not contained solely in bodily fluids. Can you get it from a toilet seat? Realistically, no, but [people engaging in] any type of close physical contact--including people who are not having intercourse and people who are using a condom--can still contract the virus.
TV: Why should women on Duke's campus care about getting the HPV vaccine?
LB: The HPV vaccine prevents against the four major strands of HPV--the two that cause cervical cancer and the two that cause 90 percent of genital warts. There is no real reason that someone shouldn't get it, and it is almost 100 percent effective. In the world of preventative medicine that's the best that you can get.
TV: What percent of cervical cancer is caused by HPV?
LB: It is very high, around 90 to 95 percent. Most bodies can clear the virus themselves, but if the virus lingers, then we have a problem. For example, many people connect smokers with the rate of lung cancer. If we compare a smoker and non-smoker and their chances of contracting lung cancer, we get a risk level of--let's say--eight. If we compare a person with HPV to a person without HPV and their chances of contracting cervical cancer, we get a risk level of 434. The connection of HPV to cervical cancer is off the charts high.
TV: hy is HPV becoming such a concern now?
LB: HPV is not more prevalent now than it was before, but rather, the context of the discussion about the disease is changing. Before, I would just say [to] protect yourself in the way you are protecting yourself from other sexually transmitted diseases. However, now with the vaccine, there is a reason to talk about HPV in a different way than the other STDs. Now, there is a vaccine that can prevent it, which, in turn, prevents cervical cancer-which lowers your risk of death.
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