Oncogenic HPV among HIV infected female population in West Bengal, India

In this hospital-based cross-sectional study, 93 known HIV positive females attending a pre-ART registration clinic and 1106 HIV negative females attending a Reproductive and Child Health Care Clinic were subjected to study. Cervical cell samples collected from the study population were tested for the presence of HPV 16, 18 using specific primers. Roche PCR assay was used to detect other specific HPV genotypes in the cervical cells specimens of HIV positive cases only.Prevalence of HPV 16, 18 among HIV positive females (32.2%; n = 30) was higher than HIV negative females (9.1%; n = 101). About 53% (23/43) of cases with oncogenic HPV were infected with genotypes other than 16, 18 either as single/multiple infections. HPV 18 and HPV 16 were the predominant genotypes among HIV positive and HIV negative subjects respectively. Oncogenic HPV was not found to be associated with age and duration of sexual exposure. But the presence of HIV was found to a statistically significant predictor oncogenic HPV.The currently available HPV vaccines offer protection only against HPV 16 and 18 and some cross- protection to few associated genotypes. These vaccines are therefore less likely to offer protection against cervical cancer in HIV positive women a high percentage of who were infected with non-16 and non-18 oncogenic HPV genotypes. Additionally, there is a lack of sufficient evidence of immunogenicity in HIV infected individuals. Therefore, prevention of cervical cancer in HIV positive women must be focused towards early detection of oncogenic HPV & cervical cytological abnormality followed by an appropriate treatment.Cervical cancer is the most common malignancy among Indian women [1]. India contributes about one fifth of the world cervical cancer burden alone [2]. Various studies have established that oncogenic Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is associated with almost all cases of cervical cancer [3]. Simultaneously, outside Africa, India has the highest number of people living wi