Hi

The Human papilloma virus (HPV) is very common. There are many different strains of HPV that cause warts on different parts of the body. It’s common for people not to have symptoms of HPV (warts), but the virus can still be on the skin and pass with skin to skin contact with the affected area.

You have not said where the HPV was but I am guessing they had genital warts and that these were treated. In one of our client handouts we say if no visible wart is seen within 2 years it is considered a resolved infection unlikely to reappear or be spread to an uninfected partner. Everyone is different so this 2 year time span could be much shorter.

The other thing is because HPV is really common and we don’t have HPV tests available at the clinical level to see if someone has a current or past HPV infection, it is unknown if you would be at risk as you could have or had that type of HPV already.

Also there would be no risk of getting HPV from hugging and kissing someone if they just have HPV on the genitals as you would need direct contact with the area for there to be a risk for example oral, vaginal or anal sex.

Click here to be redirected to our HPV page for more information.

Please leave a comment to let us know if this answers your question or if you need more information.

Health Nurse

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