this is global health

the Virus
that
owns the
world
Story Maryalice Yakutchik
Illustration Dung Hoang
Keerti Shah’s got nothing against the human papillomavirus.
The virologist bears no grudge against the virus that causes half a
million cervical cancers worldwide every year and now is blamed for a
rise in head and neck cancers so surprisingly sharp that it may presage
an imminent epidemic among U.S. baby boomers.
Revered for his Zen-like attitude as well as a body of research that
has spanned six decades and spawned stunning discoveries about HPV’s
cancer-causing ways, Shah simply is not the type to harbor ill will. Not
against anyone or anything. Not even a bug that currently infects about
79 million Americans and will infect, at some point in their lives, almost
every sexually active person. Especially not a bug that’s so successfully
infectious.
In fact, Shah respects HPV. Not in the arched-eyebrow way you
would an archrival, but with a fondness that belies kinship. A mere
genetic snippet, and therefore in need of others’ cells to live, HPV just
wants to communicate bits of itself. Survival requires transmission,
replication.
“The viruses are not devious,” says Shah, his contagious smile
conveying empathy. Papillomaviruses, he explains, have co-existed quite
peacefully with humans throughout time and relatively rarely do harm.
Johns hopkins public health / spring 2013 23