Physician-scientist here. Current recs from the American Academy of Pediatrics is for both males and females to be immunized for HPV prior to initiation of sexu

Physician-scientist here. Current recs from the American Academy of Pediatrics is for both males and females to be immunized for HPV prior to initiation of sexual activity (1). Initially I do believe that the recommendation was only for girls but that has changed for two major reasons: increase herd immunity in the overall population and because men can also get malignancies and lesions from HPV. Of note, the vaccine does not prevent all HPV infections. The 4-valent vaccine covers the two most common cancer-causing HPV strains as well as two others that commonly cause warts. As for whether a test like this would be useful in clinical practice, it would definitely depend on the situation. HPV is extremely prevalent ... by the time a person has been sexually active for a few years, it is almost guaranteed that they carry at least one strain of HPV (there are about 40-50 strains last I checked). However, most people never have any problems related to HPV, either because their immune system effectively suppresses the virus or because they have a strain that does not cause symptoms. Is it useful for one to know that they carry a non-malignancy forming, non-lesion causing strain of HPV? Is it useful for 50% of the population to believe that they have an STI although it will likely never cause any clinical symptoms in themselves or any sexual partners? I would say probably not. Is it useful to type the HPV strains of all infected patients? Maybe. Currently it would not be useful as we do not have effective antiviral therapies for HPV. However, understanding the epidemiology more clearly could certainly help as we decide which viruses to attempt to target therapeutically in the future. I will say this: the test described in this article would generally be described as a "fishing expedition" in the lab where I did my graduate studies. These types of studies can be very useful in certain cases but I predict they may also cause a lot of confusion as we begin to find subclinical viral processes occurring in plenty of healthy people. As a society, we will have to change our perception of what it means to be "infected" with a virus and as a clinician, it may become more challenging to reassure patients that they are healthy (gut and skin microbiome data will likely create a similar predicament with regard to bacteria). In any case, I'm sorry to hear about your difficulties with HPV. I see patients dealing with it on a fairly regular basis and it can be a frustrating situation. I do hope that there are effective therapies on the horizon. 1. https://www2.aap.org/immunization/illnesses/hpv/hpv.html https://www2.aap.org/immunization/illnesses/hpv/hpv.html