What’s the difference between HPV and HIV?

HPV and HIV are different viruses, and both cause different health problems.

What is HPV?

Human papilloma virus (HPV) affects the skin and the moist membranes. It can cause problems like verrucas, genital waters, and abnormal changes in the cervix.

HPV is spread via any skin-to-skin contact of the genital area. It can also be transmitted through sexual activity, and sharing sex toys.

HPV has no symptoms, meaning that you may not know if you have it or not. It is also very common, so many people will have it at some point in their life.

Most of the time HPV does not cause any problems, however some types of the virus can cause mutations that lead to cancer and genital warts.

You are unable to fully protect yourself against HPV, but there are things that you can do to help. Condoms are the best thing to help protect you, but they do not cover all the skin around your genitals, so they do not fully protect you. You can also get an HPV vaccine that protects against certain types of the virus that cause genital warts and cervical cancer.

Testing for HPV is done by a cervical screening, which is where a small sample of cells are taken from the cervix and tested for HPV. Some sexual health clinics may offer anal screenings to men who have a higher risk of developing anal cancer.

Unfortunately there is no treatment for HPV.

What is HIV?

Human immunodeficienct virus (HIV) targets the immune system. The infection can lead to AIDS, however if HIV is diagnosed early it can easily be prevented.

The virus damages cells in your immune system, which weakens your ability to fight ordinary diseases and infections. AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the name given to life-threatening infections that happen when your immune system has been extremely damaged by the HIV virus.

AIDS cannot be transmitted from one person to another. But HIV can be spread through a variety of ways, including sexual activity.

Currently there is no cure for HIV, but there are a variety of treatments that enable most people with the virus to live a near normal lifespan.

If you have any more questions on the differences between these two diseases then please feel free to contact us and one of our sexual health experts will get back to you as soon as possible.