HPV and heart disease--link found due to self reports!

[Guest guest]

(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/health/research/25theory.html?_r=1 & nl=health & emc=healthupdateema6):

"Dr. Fujise studied 2,450 women, ages 20 to 59, who took part in a national health survey from 2003 to 2006...In all, 1,141 women had HPV. Sixty women had heart disease; of those, 39 also had HPV...they found that women with HPV were 2.3 times as likely as those without the virus to have heart disease. The risk was even higher, 2.86 times that of uninfected women, in those who had HPV strains known to cause cancer."

Yet, according to this: (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/26/us-hpv-idUSTRE79P7LE20111026) "Because women were only tested and surveyed at a single time point, Kuo and Fujise also couldn't be certain if they got infected with HPV before or after suffering heart attacks and strokes."

??? That little detail kind of matters when you're talking about causes, especially when using that age-old, indisputable (cough, cough) scientific method called "a survey," and according to here: (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/uotm-hlt101911.php), testing was done "via self-collected vaginal swabs!

Winnie