Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a major cause of cervical cancer. Human Papillomavirus Infections in Dermatovenereology pulls together the diverse disciplines of clinical, molecular biological, socio epidemiological, and immunological research to bridge the gap between the clinical aspects and basic biology of HPV. This volume provides a much-needed overview of the scientific and clinical data of HPV and HPV-associated diseases, exploring opinions on current therapies and diagnostic methods. It critically reviews the most frequently used molecular biologic methods, evaluating their potential in HPV detection. Specialists in dermatology, genitourinary medicine, gynecology, urology, as well as pathologists, microbiologists, epidemiologists, and virologists will appreciate this timely examination of the ubiquitous pathogen, HPV.

Eleven years ago the circular DNA of a novel single-stranded virus has been cloned and partially characterized by Nishizawa and Okamoto and their colleagues. According to the initials of the patient from whom the isolate originated, the virus was named TT virus. This name has been subsequently changed by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) into Torque teno virus, permitting the further use of the abbreviation TTV. Although initially suspected to play a role in non A E hepatitis, subsequent studies failed to support this notion.

Within a remarkably short period of time it became clear that TT viruses are widely spread globally, infect a large proportion of all human populations studied thus far and represent an extremely heterogeneous group of viruses, now labelled as Anelloviruses. TT virus-like infections have also been noted in various animal species. The classification of this virus group turns out to be difficult, their DNA contains between 2200 and 3800 nucleotides, related so-called TT-mini-viruses and a substantial proportion of intragenomic recombinants further complicate attempts to combine these viruses into a unifying phylogenetic concept. "