Gilles Charette first noticed something was going on with his body when he found an anal wart during a shower.
Charette confirmed with a nurse practitioner that he had acquired a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, and quickly received topical ointment for treatment.
As a gay man in an open marriage, Charette also decided to get the HPV vaccine, choosing to pay out of pocket to be immunized rather than risk another HPV infection or HPV-associated cancer.
“The recommendation was to [get vaccinated],” said Charette, who is the director of the Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance in Toronto.
“And so I did.”
HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in Canada and the world, and is estimated to be responsible for five per cent of all cancer cases globally.
HPV infection is most …