What is human papillomavirus (HPV)?

Human papillomavirus (pronounced pap-ih-lo-ma-vye-rus) is also called HPV. It is a virus that includes more than 100 types, over 30 of which are sexually transmitted. The types of HPV that infect the genital area are known as genital HPV. Most sexually active people will have HPV at some point in their lives, though most will never know it because it usually has no symptoms and goes away on its own. Genital HPV types are either low-risk or high-risk types. This does not have to do with the risk of getting the infection. It is about the risk of getting cervical cancer.

What is genital herpes?
Genital herpes is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the herpes simplex viruses (HSV) type 1 and type 2. Most genital herpes is caused by HSV type 2.
Most people have no or minimal symptoms from HSV-1 or HSV-2 infection. When symptoms do occur, they usually appear as one or more blisters on or around the genitals or rectum. The blisters break, leaving ulcers or tender sores that may take up to four weeks to heal. Typically, another outbreak can appear weeks or months later.
Although the infection can stay in the body forever, the number of outbreaks usually decreases over a period of years. You can pass genital herpes to someone else even when you experience no symptoms.

Hepatitis A
How you get it: Eating food or drinking water contaminated with feces, or the bowel movement (BM), from a person infected with the hepatitis A virus (HAV). It can also be caused by anal-oral contact.

Hepatitis B
How you get it: Contact with a person infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). This can occur through having sex with an infected person, from an infected mother to her baby during childbirth, or through sharing needles with an infected person.

Hepatitis C
How you get it: Most often through sharing injection drugs with a person infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Many people don’t have symptoms and don’t know they have it.

Hepatitis E, How you get it: A person can get infected with hepatitis E virus (HEV) by eating food or drinking water contaminated with feces from an infected person. Hepatitis E is usually a disease that occurs in persons who travel to areas that have high rates of HEV infection. This type of hepatitis is not common in the United States. www.cdc.gov/hepatitis

How HIV Is Spread: The human immunodeficiency (im-myoo-no-duh-fish-in-see) virus (HIV) causes AIDS, the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. There are different types of HIV. Most people have HIV-1, but there are many strains (types); a person can become infected with more than one strain. HIV attacks the body's immune system (natural defense system against disease) by destroying one type of blood cells (CD4 cells) that helps the body fight off and destroy germs.
CD4 cells belong to a group of blood cells called T-cells that also help the body fight disease. In the body, HIV gets into these cells, makes copies of itself, and kills the healthy cells. Then the body can't fight germs anymore. When HIV takes over enough CD4 cells or causes serious infections (that don't normally make a healthy person sick), a person then has AIDS. See Diagnosing AIDSbelow for more information on how AIDS is defined.The progression from HIV to AIDS is different for everyone-some people live for 10 years or more with HIV without developing AIDS, and others get AIDS faster.

HIV is spread through some of the body's fluids. HIV is in:

• Blood
• Semen
• Vaginal fluids
• Breast milk
• Some body fluids sometimes handled by health care workers (fluids surrounding the brain and spinal cord, bone joints, and around an unborn baby)

HIV is passed from one person to another by:

• Having sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) with a person who has HIV
• Sharing needles with a drug user who has HIV
• During pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding if a mother has HIV
• Getting transfusions of blood with HIV, which is rare in the United States

Find out more information on other possible diseases: