PREVALENCE OF HIGH RISK ONCOGENIC HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS TYPES IN CERVICAL SMEARS OF WOMEN IN ILE IFE

Abstract

This study is aimed at estimating the prevalence of cervical
infection with high risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) in cervical
smears of women in Ile – Ife. Well Women Clinic of the Obafemi
Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile –Ife, is a
community based clinic where women are screened for cervical,
breast and other female related diseases.
This is a prospective cross-sectional observational study.
Information was obtained through personal interviews using
structured questionnaire. Samples were collected from 118
consenting women visiting the clinic during the study period.
Conventional Pap smear was obtained and smear results were
classified using Bethesda classification, 2001. HPV DNA was
detected using the hybribio 21 HPV Geno array test kit which uses
polymerase chain reaction (PCR), amplification and flow through
hybridization. These data were analysed using simple and
inferential statistic.
The mean age of the participants was 42.9 years (standard
deviation 10.9). A total of nine different HR-HPV types were
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identified with an HPV prevalence of 21.6% overall and 22.7%
among women with cervical lesions. The predominant HR-HPV
types were HPV 16, 53, 18 and 52. In all, 41.7% of the infections
involved more than one HPV type. Unlike in most populations
studied so far, HPV prevalence was high not only among young
women, but also in middle and old age. It was also observed that
the prevalence of HR-HPV increases with the number of
pregnancies.
This study shows that HPV 53 is the second most common
type after HPV 16. High prevalence of HR-HPV in all age group may
be a distinctive feature of a population where HPV transmission
continues into the middle age and cervical cancer incidence is very
high.