Cancer and Healthy

Most do not think of sexually transmitted diseases when they consider children. Unhappily, our kids do experience harmful effects from adults who catch sexually transmitted diseases. For example, a child, through accidental contact with diseased tissue, could be exposed to the HPV, as in childbirth.

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is a cause of cancer of the cervix; it needs to be taken seriously by both those who are active sexually, and those who at risk for sexually transmitted diseases and are pregnant or may become pregnant.

Another rare disease caused by HPV infection Laryngeal papillomatosis. The 2 types of virus that are linked with this disease are HPV 6 and HPV 11. With this disease, growths or warts grow quickly and are varied in size; they can grow in number and size until affectively blocking the air passageway. It may become hard for a child to breathe when sleeping and difficulty in swallowing may also be experienced.

HPV is exceptionally contagious via skin-to-skin contact in addition to sexual contact. The one noticeable sign of infection is the appearance of genital warts, not all of which can be seen, especially in infected women. Warts will emerge within 3 months of HPV infection.

In pregnancy, the immune system is lowered, causing a pregnant woman to be more susceptible to viral infections such as HPV. This in turn causes genital warts during pregnancy to grow even quicker and larger.

If your baby should become infected with HPV during the passage through the vagina during delivery, there may appear genital warts or there may be warts on the throat which is known as laryngeal papillomatosis.

Laryngeal papillomatosis is a rare disease that is caused by HPV infection. The two types of virus that are associated with this disease are: HPV 6 and HPV 11. The growths or warts from this disease grow rapidly and vary in size. When they grow in number and size they may affectively block the air passageway. This makes it difficult for your child to breathe when sleeping and they can also experience difficulty in swallowing.

Two tests are available to establish whether your child is suffering from this disease or not. The first is called Indirect Laryngoscopy. This is an in-office procedure conducted by a speech pathologist or a family doctor. A small mirror is placed in the back of the throat to examine the larynx area.

The other test is Direct Laryngoscopy; this is performed in an operating room under general anesthesia. This lets the doctor view directly the vocal cord folds and supplementary parts of the larynx under high magnification. Tissue biopsy may also be taken during the procedure to identify the existence of HPV.

All of this can be avoided with the proper precautions, the most effective of which is inoculation with the HPV vaccine.