HPV Vaccine
Nancy Brajtbord, RN, (L) administers a shot of gardasil, a Human Papillomavirus vaccine, to a 14-year old patient (who does not wish to be named) in Dallas, Texas March 6, 2007. Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi

In the last week of June, a Queensland tribunal banned a health worker from practicing after he was found guilty of attempting oral sex on a child patient. Besides being a criminal act when done on a minor, there are other dangers of oral sex such as increased risk of head cancers.

The study by scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Massey Cancer Center says that oral sex helped increase diagnoses of head cancers which went up by more than 200 percent since the 1980s. The American Cancer Society pointed to oral sex, alcohol and cigarettes as the reasons behind the higher incidents of oral, head, neck and throat cancers, reports Metro.

Dr Iain Morgan, researcher at VCU Cancer Center, says evidence suggests the increase in practice of oral sex is behind the rise of HPV-positive head and neck cases. In the research made by the center, they found that one in five people with cancer linked to the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) will die as a result.

HPV are the group of viruses made of double-stranded DNA that affects the skin and most lining of the human body, such as the cervix, anus, mouth and throat. Morgan explains that the cancer-causing HPV are the high-risk HPV.

He adds that everyone is at risk of being infected with HPV, even monogamous couples with the woman at risk of developing cervical cancer through the transmission of HPV16 and HPV18 during sexual intercourse.

But Dr Laurence DiNardo says 90 percent of sexually active people would be exposed to HPV, however, most will not become infected. He points out, “It’s important for people to remember just because they have an HPV-related tumour, it’s not indictment of their activity.”

DiNardo says because tumours could be hard to detect, often there is no early diagnosis since the virus hide in the crypts of the tonsil tissue. But it could take years, or even decades, for the virus to develop into cancer for some people infected with HPV.

Morgan recommends giving the HPV vaccine to children ages between 11 and 13 before they become sexually active. “The vaccine generates antibodies that recognize a protein ‘coat’ that the virus uses to protect its DNA. Attacking this coat and destroying it before the virus has a chance to infect a cell is the way the vaccine works,” continues Morgan who adds there is some evidence women and men who have sex with other men up to age 26 could benefit from the vaccine.

VIDEO: The Strong Link between Oral Sex & Cancer