Over the years, our impression of human papillomavirus has changed. Once thought of as the cause of relatively insignificant skin lesions, its significant role in malignancy of epithelia and mucosa throughout the body is beginning to be understood. Also changing, although not as rapidly as we would like is our understanding of how human papillomavirus infects the body, the concept of latency, our responses to infection, and how to modify or boost those responses so as to overcome infection. Research into the specifics of how our immune systems react, or why they do not, should give us better insight into how and why treatment therapies work and how to optimize them. Further work into vaccines may provide the means to eradicate the virus from infected persons, as well as to prevent the initial infections.