With abstinence education the obvious remedy for the epidemic, the media insist rampant sex continue: "You have to be careful. Know who you're with and you have to take precautions. You need to educate yourself."
UPDATE 04/07/09: Swedish Study Shows Oral Sex Causes Cancer
-- From "The Oral Sex Cancer Connection" by Cathy Becker, ABC News 10/15/08
While most HPV infections clear on their own, there is an alarming surge of oral cancers linked to the virus.
Johns Hopkins researchers reported in a study published in February in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that between 1973 and 2004 the incidence of HPV-related oral cancers among people in their 40s nearly doubled. Today more than 34,000 people have oral cancer and 39 percent of those cases are related to HPV, according to data from the American Cancer Society.
"There is absolutely a link between oral sex and oral cancer," said Dr. Ellen Rome, of the Cleveland Clinic.
Men are 35 percent more likely than women to develop HPV-related oral cancer, according to the study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. But both men and women are susceptible.
While scientists don't know yet how sexual orientation factors into the equation, they know the No. 1 risk factor is a high number of sexual partners. So straight or gay, the more partners, the more risk.
Infection with the virus usually happens in adolescence. And while oral sex today isn't necessarily more prevalent than it was in the past, it certainly is more accepted. And some often presume it is free of risks.
A 2005 study in the Journal Pediatrics found that teens think oral sex is less risky to their health than vaginal sex.
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