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  • 23 hours ago
Consultant urologist Dr George Lee Eng Geap, or a.k.a Dr G, answers a question posed by a reader who wonders if men develop stronger natural immunity to human papillomavirus (HPV) than women.

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Transcript
00:00Last week, we discussed that men can also get HPV infection and as a result of that, men can also
00:07get cancer related to oropharyngeal cancer, penile cancer and anal cancer.
00:12However, are men vulnerable for HPV infection or men have a better immunity against HPV?
00:20The answer is men are more vulnerable.
00:29In fact, there are several facts that is very, very evident when it comes to HPV infection.
00:35Number one is that men's natural immune system is not as good.
00:40So if you actually look at several strain of HPV infection, considering something like 6 and 16,
00:48and then also various other forms of HPV, including high risk and low risk,
00:54you realise that the natural protection of men, i.e. men getting serial conversion of the antibodies against the infection
01:02itself,
01:03after 3 years, is a measly 8% of the men will raise antibodies against such infection to protect them.
01:14So, what it means is that as a result of that, men will continuously harbour the disease.
01:21So therefore, as we see women getting rid of the disease as they get older,
01:25men will continue to have high disease burden throughout their lives from teenagers and then to the later on in
01:33their lives.
01:34As a result of that, men are more likely to get recurrences of HPV-related diseases.
01:42By far, the commonest one is genital wards.
01:45Men who get genital wards constantly get recurrences and then in fact,
01:5022% of men will get 2 or more recurrences in their lifetime.
01:54When this occurs, it can be painful and then also it will require multiple treatments such as lasers and then
02:02also cryotherapy
02:04and these are very painful and multiple recurrences themselves will affect the quality of life.
02:10Therefore, instead of thinking that men are less vulnerable to the disease,
02:16actually, in fact, men are more vulnerable to the disease but the men themselves actually should really be protected by
02:25the vaccine.
02:27For the following week, we're going to explore in the differences between transmissions of men to women and women to
02:35men
02:35and also what difference does it make whenever men are not protected by the vaccine.
02:41So, stay tuned for next week's Putting Dr. G on the Spot.
02:47Putting Dr. G on the Spot
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