Is genital human papillomavirus infection always sexually transmitted?

The occurrence of genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection was studied prospectively by colposcopy and histology in 43 virginal and 162 sexually active women attending a colposcopy clinic. The study also included 111 husbands of the latter group. By colposcopic criteria, the prevalence of HPV infection was 51.1% in the virginal and 69.1% in the sexually active women. The prevalence was 77.1% among men whose wives had HPV infection compared to 13.3% among men whose wives did not have the infection (p less than 0.01). There was a strong association in genital HPV infection between husbands and wives as expected from a sexually transmissible disease. However, the high prevalence of the infection among the virginal women indicated that transmission of HPV by nonsexual modes was common. Genital HPV infection is ubiquitous and in women is not exclusively a venereal disease.