Cel-Sci Corporation has joined several AIDS organizations and advocacy groups, the HPV Foundation and Chronimed to create the National HPV Co-Infection Alliance. The group formed to address the growing epidemic of HPV among HIV-infected patients. HPV, the world's leading sexually transmitted virus, is also a growing problem in HIV-infected women, whose damaged immune system cannot clear the HPV virus, which leads to serious health complications including cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide.

The National HPV Co-Infection Alliance, according to the group's vision, will comprise municipal health authorities, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, AIDS service organizations, and nonprofits. Its goal is to educate the public about the growing HPV epidemic and to pursue support for clinical research from the U.S. government.

The group's initial campaign, "Get Tested, Get Treated," will include a nationwide series of public service announcements, treatment education symposia for health care providers and patients, and an HIV Clinical Education Initiative.

HPV is a growing problem in HIV-uninfected patients as well. Up to 50 percent of college women and men contract HPV, studies have shown. "A large concern among women who have HPV-induced cervical dysplasia is that the treatment of this disease can require surgical procedures such as hysterectomy or procedures which can, in some cases, lead to cervical incompetence and the inability to bear children. This incredibly common sexually transmitted disease can have devastating consequences, and yet the existence of this epidemic is essentially unknown to the public," said Gregory Henderson, M.D., Ph.D., president of the HPV Foundation and author of the book, Women at Risk -- The HPV Epidemic and Your Cervical Health.

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