[Question #9935] oral HR-HPV risk for children in the family

27 months ago

Dear Dr Hunter or Dr Hook. I am very sorry to come back to the forum again. I am of father of a baby (several months old) and another kid. My concern is the risk of oral HR-HPV to them (worrying about the oral cancer associated with these HR-HPV). The possible risk exposures are: I often masturbated during the nights. without washing hands and then taking caring of the baby and kid during his infant/baby time. Their mouths may inevitably contact/lick my dirty hands. In some rarer occasions, they may contact my ejaculations (not very often).I understand you have assured me that these are non-risk. I also try to understand these exposures are normal. Many other families may also have such similar encounters. If these activities pose any risks, many kids are at risk. The problem is I read a lot of scientific publications on HPV research, ranging from transmission to HPV prevalence in adults, children and infant. Many of them suggests the prevalence of HR-HPV in infants and children is not low. This partially due to vertical transmission and may be non-sexual transmission present. For example, this one " Oral Human Papillomavirus Infection in Children during the first 6 years of life, Finland".

Dear Dr hunter and Dr Hook. Can you comment on those scientific publications and how should ordinary people deal with the information they try to deliver?

Now I am very confused. On one hand, I try accept those activities above mentioned are non-risk. On the other hand, my mind thinking there must be reasons HPV so prevalence compared to other STIs.

Thank you in advance for helping.

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

27 months ago

Welcome back, but I'm afraid we cannot help very much. It is obvious that you are irrationally obsessed with HPV and your children's health. The fact remains that HPV is almost always absent in the children in households of HIV infected adults, no matter what kind of contact they have with one another (except for sexual abuse, of course). Yes, some infants acquire HPV (both high and low risk types) by vertical transmission, when the mother has active genital HPV. There also are rare cases of unexplained infection in children, but those reports rarely are able to exclude things like reactivation of past vertical transmission; or sexual abuse (which of course always is denied).

Any single scientific report of any unusual event usually can be ignored. First, the very fact of a case report is evidence that the situation is rare: if it were common, there would be no need for a case report. Indeed there are good reasons HPV is so very prevalent: it is nearly universal in sexually active adults. But that doesn't mean the virus is easily transmitted by nonsexual contact with other persons, including children.

You describe no sexual exposure of your own that could have infected you with HPV -- but of course if you had other sexual exposures before your marriage, or if your wife did, you can assume you and your wife have been exposed and likely infected. Even if you are infected, masturbation etc carries zero risk for yourself or anyone else in the household. Your kids will be at risk for HPV and will be infected someday. But not until they become sexually active. The main thing you can do to support their health in regard to HPV is assure they are vaccinated before they become sexually active. The vaccine is approved and recommended (in most countries) beginning at age 9 or 11 years, i.e. before sexual activity begins. Beyond that, try to stop worrying entirely.

I will not reply to any "Yes but", "Could I be the exception", or similar questions. If you ask anything more that has been answered in this thread or your previous one, or whose answers are obvious from those discussions, I will have nothing to say. Thank you for your understanding.

HHH, MD

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