Researchers from the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Homerton University Hospital, and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in the UK, whose work is published by Sexually Transmitted Infections, an official journal of the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV, report: “Men who have sex with men are disproportionately affected by HPV-related cancer, particularly anal cancer, where rates are over 15 times higher than in heterosexual men.”
HPV is a sexually transmitted viral disease which can cause cervical cancer and genital warts. Worldwide, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in adults. For example, more than 80% of American women will have contracted at least one strain of HPV by age 50. Now, because of the high risk nature of homosexual male sex, and the increasing rates of promiscuity in the gay community, especially among the youth, gay men are the new HPV mega-carrier. In the UK, some scientists are recommending that gay men become vaccinated for HPV. Already, as of late 2007, about one quarter of US females age 13–17 years had received at least one of the three HPV shots. In the United States, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved administration of the vaccine to males between ages 9 and 26 in 2009. A 2005 study in San Francisco found that 95% of HIV infected gay men also had anal HPV infection, of which 50% had precancerous HPV-caused lesions.