*Nearly 80 million Americans are infected with HPV
Three doses of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine can protect children and adolescents against several types of cancer caused in a high percentage by this sexually transmitted virus.
However, in San Mateo, less than 50 percent of that population group has the Human Papillomavirus vaccine.
Although it is true that the county does not have updated figures, it details that until 2016, 98 percent of that population group was vaccinated against diseases such as measles, mumps and polio, but they did not have the vaccine against the Human Papillomavirus.
Nearly 80 million Americans, approximately one in four, are infected with HPV, and if not properly treated, they can develop cancer.
Nearly all cases of cervical cancer are caused by HPV, and some cases of vulvar, vaginal, penile, anus and oropharyngeal (throat, tongue and tonsils) cancer are caused by HPV, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.
Overall, HPV is thought to be the cause of about 90 percent of anal and cervical cancers, about 70 percent of vaginal and vulvar cancers, and 60 percent of penile cancers.
Cancers in the back of the throat are most often caused by tobacco and alcohol, but studies have shown that 60 to 70 percent may be linked to HPV.
Each year in the United States, about 46,000 new cases of cancer are located in parts of the body where the human papillomavirus frequently attacks and causes about 36,500 of these cancers.
Some types of HPV are classified as