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Prevalence of Genital Human Papilloma Virus Infection and Genotypes among Young Women in Sicily, South Italy

¹ Dipartimenti di Igiene e Microbiologia, ² Biotecnologie Mediche e Medicina Legale, and ³ Ostetricia e Ginecologia, Università di Palermo, Palermo, Italy; and ⁴ Ispettorato Regionale Sanità, Regione Sicilia, Italy

Requests for reprints: Pietro Ammatuna, Policlinico P. Giaccone, Dipartimento di Igiene e Microbiologia, Università di Palermo, Via del Vespro 133, Palermo 90127, Italy. Telefax: 39-091-6553661. E-mail: ammatuna{at}unipa.it

Infection with oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) types is a necessary cause of cervical cancer. This study assessed the prevalence of HPV infection and genotypes among 1,006 randomly selected women, ages 18 to 24 years, living in Sicily (south Italy). The overall HPV rate was 24.1% (95% confidence interval, 21.5-26.9). The most frequent types were HPV-16 (4.5%), HPV-53 (2.7%), and HPV-84 (2.6%). The prevalence of vaccine types HPV-6, HPV-11, and HPV-18 was 1.4%, 0.1%, and 1.3%, respectively. Cytologic abnormalities were uncommon (3.1%) and associated with HPV detection (P < 0.0001). The only risk factor for HPV infection was the number of sexual partners (women with 2-3 partners versus women with 1 partner: odds ratio, 3.86; 95% confidence interval, 2.45-6.09). Genital HPV infection is relatively high in young Italian women. The high prevalence of viral types other than vaccine types should be taken into account to ensure accurate postvaccine surveillance and early detection of a possible genotype replacement. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(8):2002–6)