The prevalence of genital human papillomavirus infection among women in çukurova region

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the major etiologic agent of the cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide. This study was aimed to investigate the prevalence of human papillomavirus infection among women in our region. Total 460 cervical cytology samples were obtained from women aged between 20-68 years. HPV DNA was detected by consensus PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test using MY09/11 and GP5+/6+ primers. HPV DNA positive samples were identified by HPVpU-1M/pU-2R and HPVpU-31B/pU-2R primers as high risk (HR) and low risk (LR) HPV types respectively. In addition, HPV DNA positive samples were genotyped by type specific PCR for HPV 16, 18, 31 and 45 which are the most common HR HPV types in cervical cancer. From a total of 460 cervical samples, 24 (5.2%) were found to be positive for HPV DNA. Of the 24 HPV DNA positive women, 14 (3%) were positive for HR HPV types as single or multiple infections and 10 (2.2%) had LR HPV types as single infection. The most frequent HPV type was HPV 16 with a rate of 33.3%, followed by HPV 45 (20.8%), HPV 18 and HPV 31 (4.2%) among 24 HPV DNA positive women aged 30 years and older. In conclusion, the prevalence of genital HPV infection was found 5.2% among women in Çukurova region and it is suggested that the epidemiological investigation of HPV infection should be also maintained in future for development strategies of cervical cancer screening and for evaluating appropriateness of HPV vaccines.