On Thursday, researchers reported that human papillomavirus (HPV) increases the probability that someone will suffer from head and neck cancer with a minimal sevenfold and could be much more.

HPV is already known to cause head and neck cancer, but this research has shown just how much it affects the vulnerability.

You have a reason to be happy too because the virus can be prevented using a vaccine, and doctor can find who’s at most risk with the help of a mouthwash test.

Dr. Ilir Agalliu along with colleagues at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine analyzed the records of over 96,000 people, who took part in a big medical study.

As part of the study, they all went through a mouthwash test for oral HPV infection. Post four years, 132 participants had suffered some form of head and neck cancer. The researchers compared every cancer patient to three similar people who didn't contract it.

The team reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association's JAMA Oncology that the people infected with a strain known as HPV-16 have two to 22 times more chances of being in the cancer group.

According to experts, 70% of all head and neck cancers were caused by HPV, usually spread by oral sex. They said that head and neck cancer is going to beat out cervical cancer as the most common HPV-related cancer, by 2020.

Prior to the 1990s it was believed that smoking and drinking caused head and neck cancers but in the last 3 decades there has been a sharp rise in such cancers in heterosexual males, which forced the experts to search for another explanation.

Already known to result in most cases of cervical cancer, and cancers of the anus and penis, HPV turned out to be the cause.