Participants were recruited through promotional materials distributed on campus and student venues.

14– 17 Briefly, HITCH was a prospective cohort study which enrolled young female university and college students aged 18-24 years old and their male partners ≥18 years old in Montréal, Canada, during 2005-2011. Study procedures have been previously described. We used data from the HPV Infection and Transmission Among Couples through Heterosexual Activity (HITCH) study, which examined the transmission of HPV in young, heterosexual, newly-formed couples. Our objective was to determine whether hand-to-genital transmission of HPV is supported by examining cross-sectional and prospective dynamics of hand and genital HPV detection in couples, or whether the detection of HPV DNA in the hand is merely carriage that is incidental to genital infections. This could assuage fears of inadvertently transmitting HPV to partners or of becoming infected from hand-to-genital contacts. It is therefore important to elucidate the importance of hand-to-genital transmission, and provide public health messages based on strong scientific evidence.

12, 13 Clinicians and public health workers must be able to inform the public on the modes and risks of transmission of HPV. The general public is becoming more aware of HPV due to the availability of vaccines and cervical cancer screening with HPV tests, and many may have questions and anxieties regarding the transmission and risk of HPV infections. It remains unclear to what extent HPV transmission events occur from hand-to-genital or genital-to-hand contact. 11 The high correlation between hand and genital HPV detections makes it difficult in most studies to separate cause from effect and the directionality of transmission. 8 However, there has always been skepticism as to the importance of hand-to-genital transmission of alpha HPV types. 4– 8 This hypothesis is supported by the frequent detection of alpha HPV DNA on hands and under fingernails, 8– 10 as well as the high concordance between hand and genital HPV types in the same person 6, 9 and between partners. 3 Over the years, some have also speculated as to the possibility of hand-to-genital transmission of alpha HPV types. 2 Because HPV prevalence is highly correlated with the number of recent and lifetime genital sex partners, a large body of evidence suggests alpha HPV types are mainly transmitted through genital-to-genital contact. 1 Alpha HPV types mainly infect mucosal tissues. Human papillomavirus (HPV) types of the genus Alphapapillomavirus (alpha) are sexually transmitted infections, many of which cause anogenital and oropharyngeal cancers in men and women.

Can you get hpv from touching hands