Revista de virología e investigación antiviral

Molecular Detection of Human Papilloma Virus Infection of Uterine Cervix among Women of Reproductive Age

Misbah Noor, Eijaz Ghani, Saifullah Khan Niazi and Muhammad Tahir Khadim

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine frequency of human papilloma virus infection of uterine cervix among women of reproductive age by polymerase chain reaction.

Study Design and Duration: It was a cross sectional study of six months duration.

Methodology: 162 samples of exfoliated cervical cells were collected with cervical sampler; during gynecological examination. The tip containing cellular material was placed into PreservCyt bottle with collection medium, stored at 4°C and then transported to Virology department of AFIP for real time PCR.

Results: The frequency of human papilloma virus infection of uterine cervix among women of reproductive age by polymerase chain reaction was 2.47% (n=4). Mean age of participants was 33.2 ± 6.4 years. Mean age at 1st pregnancy was 23 ± 3.3 years while mean number of children was 3 ± 1.4. 87.7% of participants husband had one wife and 4.9% participants husband had more than one wives. 89.5% never used OCP while 5.6% were former and 4.9% were current users. 89% of participants never smoked, 9% were former smoker and 2% were current smokers. Among positive cases, three patients had HR-HPV 16 and one had a rare HR-HPV 51/59 infection.

Conclusion: The frequency of human papilloma virus infection of uterine cervix was not very high among women of reproductive in our setup. However, it was a single center study which may not reflect the frequency of the whole city as data from other hospitals was not included in the study. All four positive cases belong to >36 years age group. The positive women in our study had birth of their first child between 15-20 years of age (P=0.001 CI=95%) and also they had high parity (P=0.013 CI=95%). All the four positive women were apparently healthy, so screening must be recommended for sexually active women in our country. A nationwide study must be carried out for formulation of screening and vaccination strategies for future.