They are completely relooking at it being a virus that is only sexually transmitted. It can possibly be much more casually contracted at even looking at just skin to skin contact, drinking after someone. There are over 200 varieties of the virus now, still #16 and #18 are the major cancer causing varietes in the throat. There are several that can occur on the skin and it is almost invisible to the naked eye.
They do know it is strongly related with tobacco and alchol use, but they cannot pinpoint as to how. Was also told that someone peole with a healthy lifestyle and strong immune system can kill the vurus off completely, while the average person only sends into a state of dormancy, but determination as to how long.
This another virus that should be looked at in our situations because the understanding of it is changing very rapidly, along with different varieties or strains of it. I have not heard anything about how accurate the testing is for it.
All I can say is check your lymph nodes under your jaw and keep an eye on your throat for consistent soreness. If you have your tonsils i will probably hit one of them first. My oncologist did tell me that if you have your tonsils only one of them will become infected with cancer. It is something like 95% atypical, but they went ahead and took both of my tonsils out anyway and pathology confirmed that only one tonsil had HPV #16 Squamous Cell Carcinoma and it was classified as T2-N1-No (or something like this)