BEIJING, June 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Using
condoms consistently and properly can reduce a woman's risk of acquiring a
virus that causes genital warts and most cases of cervical cancer, suggests a
new study.
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the
study showed that women who said their male partners always used condoms were 70
percent less likely to develop a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection than women
whose partners used them less than 5 percent of the time.
In the study, the researchers followed 82 female students
at the University of Washington ages 18 through 22 from the time they said they
had their first sexual intercourse with a male partner.
Every two weeks, the women electronically filed
information about their daily sexual behavior and condom use to a protected Web
site. Every four months, the researchers tested the women for papillomavirus and
early indications of cancer.
The result showed that the women who used condoms 100
percent of the time were 70 percent less likely to get HPV infected.
Even women whose partners used condoms more than half the
time had a 50 percent risk reduction in HPV infection, compared with those who
used condoms less than 5 percent of the time.
Cervical cancer is the second most common malignant
disease in women globally, causing an estimated 290,000 deaths worldwide each
year. In the United States, some 10,400 new cases will be diagnosed this year,
and 3,700 women will die from the disease.
Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
recently licensed a human papillomavirus vaccine that is widely expected to
prevent many warts and female cancers, the findings of the study are important
because the vaccination protects against just four strains of human
papillomavirus.
Experts on infectious diseases say they believe that
condoms, when properly used, are effective in preventing papillomavirus and
virtually all other sexually transmitted infections. Enditem
(Agencies)
