@hollyv: i know everything can be BS but i would believe expert data rather than some online dude/gal opinion, once again I say this and I will stick to this.
It's like a survey on people's average height in United States. They say average height for men is just 5'9". If you live in NYC and in San Francisco, definitely you would have different opinion on this data. You would say "average men is definitely taller than 5'9"' but it can be also vice versa. In the end nothing is 100% true, there's no mathematics. I would agree with that.
However, once again, i would believe these "experts" data rather than your opinion. Here for example:
http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv.htm
How common are HPV and related diseases?
HPV (the virus). Approximately 20 million Americans are currently infected with HPV. Another 6 million people become newly infected each year. HPV is so common that at least 50% of sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives.
Genital warts. About 1% of sexually active adults in the U.S. have genital warts at any one time.
Cervical cancer. Each year, about 12,000 women get cervical cancer in the U.S. Almost all of these cancers are HPV-associated.
and here:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/STDs/Couple-Of-Questions-About-Genital-Warts/show/1583567?personal_page_id=2214850#post_7192354
The best estimate is that 60-70% of people who acquire HPV 6 or 11 develop visible warts. That leaves a large minority (30-40%) who have only asymptomatic infections. Typically it takes 6-12 months before visible warts appear, and they rarely show up before 3 months. Therefore, some apparently asymptomatic infections may simply appear late -- sometimes long after the exposure.
Again, what these people are saying might be wrong but I would believe them instead of debating your logics (regarding prostitutes etc.). Because talking about logics, sometimes there are logical fallacies here and there.
For example, someone who touches his herpes sore on his penis and doesn't wash his hand. Would the herpes "live" in his hand? Logics would tell us yes. Then how if he shakes hand with someone else then that someone else touch his/her genital afterward? Would she/he gets herpes? According to logics, it should be possible. But if you read everywhere, there's no STD REPORTED CASE from genital-hand-genital case.
When I said reported case, I was not talking about some online claims, but real people who ever been to STD clinic. If you search around expert forum here, both dr. Hunter and dr. Edward claim there's no such patient who admitted they only received handjob/mutual masturbation then they got a STD. I have been to several doctors in my country myself and I even have ever asked them about this. 2 of them even laughed at me and said "no, it's impossible"
in the end it's true that any data/survey/statistics could be wrong but they are way closer to the truth rather than someone's logics/opinion on certain case. I wouldn't worry much about HPV if I were you, because what's done is done. After all, most ****** are liars. I got my wart from a prostitute, just so you know. I had the same lifestyle as most young men in bigger cities, drinks, nightclubs, cheap girls, etc. etc. I would tell you most prostitutes are used to lieing. If you ask them "what did you do before you work here", 90% of them would say "nothing". They dont want you to dig any info on them and if you ask them whether they ever got STD or not, they would always answer "im totally healthy".
I want to say something though...if what you said is true, about there are way more people who have genital wart-causing HPV strains but then they never had genital wartm it's actually a good thing then! Because it means, we can still have sex with our partner and she/he never worry about getting any bump.