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Dr. Diane Harper - What is the relationship between genital warts and HPV?

Dr. Diane Harper - What is the relationship between genital warts and HPV? (0:37)

Not all types of human papillomavirus (HPV) cause genital warts. In this video, HPV expert Dr. Diane Harper discusses the difference between HPV strains that cause cancer and those that cause warts.

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Genital warts is a subset of HPV. It is usually caused by type six and 11, those types are not associated with cancers, they're associated only with warts and while the treatment for those warts is not necessarily pleasant nor necessarily desirable they do not cause cancer and you will not die of your warts.

The kinds of HPV that cause cancer are the 15 types that are highly related to cancer and those are the types that we're most concerned about in our cervical cancer screening program.