Lack of Perception for HPV: A Literature Review

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
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Introduction:
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) has primarily effective symptoms that are the warts on the
genital organs of human. These warts can be very dangerous as the warts caused by the HPV
leads to cancer and it is a contagious disease as well. Though there is presence of vaccine to
prevent this virus infecting the human body however, the lack of knowledge or perception about
the disease cause numerous deaths in under developed regions of the world. Almost 7.5% of
female deaths occurred in 2018 as result of cervical cancer which developed by the HPV attack
and almost 85% of these deaths and the occurrence of cervical cancers happened to be found in
the low income countries (Who.int, 2019). The following proposal is focused on the literature
review of the lack of perception for HPV.
Literature review:
Review of research papers can give an idea regarding the significance of conducting
research on this topic. Assoumou et al. (2015), surveyed in the region of Libreville, Gabon
among the random females counting to 452 aged above 16 years and the survey was focused on
the lack of awareness and knowledge about the cervical cancer and the prevention of HPV. They
used the logistic regression analysis to determine the effects of the demographic characters
which can be the cause of the lack of awareness in the region. The survey resulted in the
knowledge development about the factor that only 8% of theses respondents have the knowledge
about HPV and 91.6% of the women heard about cervical cancer. However, the results also
showed that among these 91.6% of the women only 65.1% had done cervical screening test and
others had shown a perception that it is an unimportant disease and also the fear of finding about
a critical disease also inhibited the screening tests among them. These results highlighted that a

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very poor knowledge about HPV is one of the factors that increased the number of the diseased
people in the region of Gabon. Schmotzer and Reding (2013), highlighted that cervical cancer is
one of the leading cause of women death in US and their findings were about knowledge and
beliefs about the HPV virus prevention or vaccination process. They surveyed among 202
nursing students including Hispanic and non-Hispanic ones and 28.9% have received the HPV
vaccination whereas only 27.3% of the Hispanic students had intended to receive the vaccine.
Thus it can be seen on the basis of the result that the beliefs of the multi-cultural people pose a
barriers in the knowledge and the awareness about HPV. The Hispanic people among all these
respondents had very lesser knowledge which is almost nil in this context.
Based on the results of the survey of Radecki et al. (2016), it is seen that knowledge
about the HPV virus and the vaccination of this foreign agent in the body lesser among the
people of the US and somewhat average in the white people. The survey among 296 people
showed that only 50.3% of the people had the knowledge of the HPV virus and 32.1% of the
respondents heard about the HPV vaccines. This result when analysed by the help of the
benchmark of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) the authors found that
the knowledge about HPV is very low among the multi-cultured people of US. All these surveys
and responses found that the lack of awareness about the disease and the cause of the disease
leads to the death of a numerous people in different regions of the world especially in the multi-
cultured community and also in the under developed region of the world population (Who.int,
2019). Mojahed et al. (2013) opined that the lack of knowledge about the HPV infection and the
sexual transition of this virus leading to the cervical cancer among the women needed to be
changed and the nurses, patients and also the young and adolescent people of the communities by
means of health education about the HPV virus and the vaccination of this virus. However, their

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survey among 357 health care nurses highlighted that only 36.7% nurse among them have the
knowledge about the HPV infection and 41.2% showed the intension about taking the
vaccination in terms of the preventive measures for the cervical cancer. However, the lack of the
awareness and the knowledge of this critical disease pose a critical concern for the society as all
the above discussed surveys have shown a negative response in terms of the knowledge and the
preventive policies of the disease. The HPV infection is also a sexually transmitted infection that
can affect and cause cervical cancer in other human bodies thus the prevention of this disease is a
mandate in present days.
Manoel et al. (2017) highlighted the factors that the knowledge and awareness about the
HPV infection is a critical condition among the community health agents in order to deliver the
proper knowledge about the disease among the community they are responsible for. However,
their study among 124 Brazilian community health agents showed that they had heard about the
HPV infection and only 25% of them have the knowledge about the HPV testing and 72.6% of
them answered about the disease which showed their knowledge is very poor about the factor.
They also stated that who answered more than 70% words in right manner are younger than the
others. Thus it can be said that the knowledge and awareness about HPV needed to be spread
among the community health agents properly as they are the responsible person to educate the
people of the community about the effects and the preventive ways for the disease.
All these surveys and the literature showed that the gap in the awareness and knowledge
spreading program among the less developed regions of the world. However, the literatures lack
the factors which could be used in the education program about the HPV virus and the
vaccination of the infection.