Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are associated with cervical cancer. There were only a few reports and detailed data about epidemiological research of HPV infection in general population of China.
Aims: To determine the prevalence of genital HPV infection in Chinese women of Guangdong province.
Methods: A total of 1705 women were screened by gene chip. All HPV-positive women were further examined by ThinPrep liquid-based cytology test (TCT), and the cervical biopsies of those women with positive HPV-DNA and abnormal TCT were collected for pathological diagnosis.
Results: The overall HPV prevalence was 9.03% (154 of 1705), and 72.3% (126 of 154) of total positive samples were high-risk types, with higher prevalence of types 52, 58, 16, 18 and CP8304. For women aged 51 years or older, the overall high-risk HPV prevalence was 12.2% (24 of 179), which was obviously higher than those of other age groups (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: Our results showed that the HPV prevalence in Guangdong is very similar to the world level. Unlike most previous studies, our findings suggest that HPV prevalence increased with age, and that the predominant genotypes in this area were HPV 52 and 58.