Kick the Butt to Prevent STD: Study
Smoking and intake of tobacco-based substances increases risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), finds a study.
It is known that smoking elevates one's risk for a number of health ailments including increased blood pressure, lung infections, heart diseases and cancer. A new research advises people to kick the butt to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. The experts at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine looked at certain biomarkers in 6,887 subjects who were regular smokers and tobacco users to assess their vulnerability for oral human papillomavirus 16 or oral HPV-16. The participants were aged between 14 and 69 and underwent DNA testing for oral HPV. The research also recorded all sorts of exposure to tobacco fumes and products like secondhand smoking, sharing cigarettes and use of smoke-less tobacco cigarettes, reports the Business Standard.
About 2,012 participants were current tobacco users and 63 of them were diagnosed with oral HPV-16.
The findings also revealed majority of smokers were young males from poor socio-economic background and those with multiple partners with whom they had oral sex. The prevalence of oral HPV-16 was 2 percent higher in current tobacco users compared 0.6 percent in former tobacco users.
According to the data by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HPV is one of the leading causes of Oropharyngeal cancers in the country after intake of tobacco and alcohol. Every year over 2,300 women and 9,300 men are likely to be diagnosed with the HPV associated cancer, suggest 2012 estimates.
More information is available online in JAMA.
