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Ask the Experts about AIDS-Related Cancers
HPV & immune system
Jun 13, 2003
Dear Dr. Dezube
Thank you very much for answering my question (HPV & HIV Co-infection? Could I have gotten one without the other? Apr 20, 2003). I really appreciate it.
Sorry, another question. You said: "Many patients infected with HPV will clear the infection completely, thanks to their own immune system". Does that mean that in these patients HPV is completely eradicated or HPV virus is still there but under the siege of powerful antibody? Let me put it another way. If my HPV does not flare up for the next 20 years, but at the 21th year, I undergo chemotherapy, immune system is damaged to some extent, will the HPV flare up again?
thank you very much. God bless.
Dan
Response from Dr. Dezube
I did indeed write that "Many patients infected with HPV will clear the infection completely, thanks to their own immune system". In these patients, there is no HPV lurking so that at the 21st year, as you describe, when their immune system is damaged, the HPV will NOT flare up. However, in other patients, the HPV becomes sub-clinical (dormant). In these patients, when the immune system is damaged, HPV may indeed flare. So basically either of these situations is possible.
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