Prevalence of HPV genotypes determined by PCR and DNA sequencing in cervical specimens from French women with or without abnormalities

BackgroundEpidemiological data on human papillomavirus (HPV) are needed to estimate potential changes in type distribution induced by recent HPV vaccination strategies.Objectives and study designThe epidemiological distribution of HPV in 669 cervical specimens from French women with and without cytological abnormalities was evaluated using type-specific PCR or sequencing. The results were compared with those obtained using the Digene® high-risk Hybrid Capture 2 (HR-HC2) assay.ResultsThe overall prevalence of HPV was high (45.3%) in our study population. 285 of the 291 HPV-positive samples were typed. The distribution frequency concerned 34 different genotypes, with HPV16 being the most prevalent (32.6%). Other genotypes present were HPV31 (7.4%), HPV18, HPV 52 (both 6.0%), HPV6 (5.3%) and HPV66 (4.2%). The respective frequencies of all other genotypes were below 4%. The agreement with HR-HC2 was 78.8%. The distribution frequency data were also analyzed relatively to cytological and histological results. Our method enables the diagnosis of HPV infections with the additional advantage of genotyping.ConclusionHPV infections in the area of France studied here involve numerous HPV types, but the high cumulative prevalences of types 16, 18, 6 and 11 (44.6% in total) would suggest a major impact of vaccination on these genotypes.