HPV, or human papilloma virus, is well-known as the virus that can lead to genital warts and cervical cancer. But, doctors at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto say it can also cause a devastating throat warts in children.
Mothers with genital infections of HPV can pass the virus on to their children during pregnancy or childbirth, where it can cause wart-like lesions of the nose, the back of the throat, and the trachea of their babies.
These lesions interfere with breathing and require frequent surgical removal for years.
The affliction is known as juvenile onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, or JoRRP, and although it's relatively rare, it takes a significant toll on patients and their families, new research has found.
Dr. Paolo Campisi, and associate professor in the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine's Department of Otolaryngology and an otolaryngologist at SickKids, set out to study the prevalence of JoRRP, using data collected from colleagues across Canada.
The study is thought to be the first to estimate the scope and impact of the condition in Canada.
His team found that the prevalence of the condition is about 1.11 per 100,000 in Canada. They say between 1994 and 2007, 243 cases were reported in kids under the age of 14. But that small number of cases required a substantial 3,021 surgeries.
They found that kids diagnosed with JoRRP underwent a median of seven surgical procedures each. Patients were nearly equally split between male and female and most were diagnosed around the age of four.
They also found that while most patients needed fewer surgeries over time, some needed them regularly, while others needed more as time went on.
"These remarkable statistics underline the enormity of the physical, psychological, and financial burden of JoRRP that targets a relatively small population of children," Campisi and his co-authors write in the June online edition of the journal, The Laryngoscope..
"While the overall incidence of JoRRP is low, the implication for the afflicted children is significant and knowing the scope of the problem is critical," Campisi added in a news release.
Campisi notes that genital HPV infection is still the most common sexually transmitted infection among young, sexually active people. But he says the hope is that widespread vaccination against HPV within the female population will affect the incidence of JoRRP, "and spare children from the harsh consequences of the disease," he said.
This study was funded, in part, by an unrestricted research grant from Merck Frosst Canada, the maker of the Gardisil HPV vaccine, as well as by the SickKids Foundation.
