Prenatal maternal prevalence and new-born vertical transmission of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria

Vertical transmission of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection can occur as demonstrated by the established association between a maternal history of genital warts and the development of laryngeal papillomas in children less than 2 years of age. Also there has been reported cases of infants who had genital warts present at the time of delivery. The prevalence and transmission rates of HPV at birth not known.  This study determined the prevalence of HPV DNA in the cord blood of the baby at delivery and the maternal cervical sample, and the concordance between the prevalence in the cord blood and in the cervical sample using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Cord blood samples were collected at from 113 participating pregnant women, from whom their cervical swab samples had been taken in antenatal clinic. The specimens were analysed for HPV DNA using the PCR with the consensus primers MY09/MY11. HPV DNA was detected in 54 cord blood and 11 cervical samples. There were 9 positive concordances for both the cord blood and the cervical sample. The prevalence of HPV DNA in the cord blood was 47.92% and in the maternal cervical sample was 9.7% and the difference was statistically significant. The typing on the positive HPV DNA shows 50.77% positive for HPV 16 and 16.92% positive for HPV 18. The detection of HPV DNA in the cord blood and the type specific genotypes concordance in the cervical suggests that the mother is the most probable source of HPV positive in the new born. Therefore, this should be a compulsory procedure at the point of delivery for early detection and treatment of HPV infections among the newborn babies.