Prevalence and Risk Assessment of Human Papillomavirus Infection in a Bengali Cohort

Cervical cancer is a notable cause of mortality and morbidity among women of reproductive age. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the leading cause of cervical cancer among women. Among 170 types of HPV; HPV-16 and -18 are responsible for cervical cancer. The overexpression of oncoproteins E6 and E7 are predominantly responsible for causing neoplasia. The presence of koilocytosis/koilocytotic atypia is the diagnostic point of HPV infection in pap smears. To identify the circulating types of HPV and determine the various risk factors associated with HPV infection, 100 vaginal biopsies or swabs were taken from patients suspected with cervical cancer, and qualitative and semi-quantitative real-time PCR were performed. PCR primers (GP5+/GP6+) based on a conserved region of the HPV-L1open reading frame(ORF) gene were used for the detection of HPV strains, while another set of primers was used for detecting the E6 gene (HPV-16) and E7 gene (HPV-18). The results showed an HPV infection rate of 23%. Furthermore, the prevalent genotype was found to be HPV-16 (73.91%), followed by HPV-18 (26.1%), while mixed infections of both HPV-16 and -18 accounted for 21.74%. In addition, an age of above 45 years, multiple pregnancies, low socioeconomic status, postmenopausal state, anemia, and early coitarche were significantly associated with HPV infection. These results provide the basis for the formulation of an appropriate strategy for disease monitoring to determine the frequency and distribution pattern of HPV infection.