Genital Human Papillomavirus Prevalence and Genotyping Among Males in Putuo District of Shanghai, China 2015-2019

BACKGROUND Reports of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and genotype distribution in Chinese men are limited, and HPV vaccination has not yet been recommended for men in China. MATERIAL AND METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the prevalence and genotyping of male genital HPV. A total of 1227 male patients (aged 17 to 81 years) attending the dermatology and sexually transmitted disease clinics at Putuo District Center Hospital in Shanghai from 2015 to 2019 were included. Genital exfoliated specimens were obtained for detection and genotyping of 27 HPV types by Luminex-based multiplex assay. RESULTS The prevalence of any HPV was 65.5% (804/1227). The rate of multiple infection was 25.8% (317/1227). The 5 main HPV types were 6 (32.0%), 11 (23.2%), 16 (5.6%), 43 (4.3%), and 59 (4.0%). Among all detected HPV genotypes, 65.5% (875/1336) were 9-valent HPV genotypes. No significant differences were observed in the detection rate of HPV infection over 5 years (P>0.05). Age groups ≤24 years (70.7%) and ≥55 years (72.9%) showed higher infection rates, and significant differences were detected in rates of low-risk HPV infection in different age-stratified groups (P<0.05). Prevalence of HPV infection among patients with warts (74.4%) was significantly higher than that of patients with other clinical characteristics (40.4%) and physical examination (63.6%). CONCLUSIONS Our study suggested that more than half of Chinese male patients have detectable HPV infections, and penis-genital and anogenital warts were the most common clinical manifestations. Moreover, the available 9-valent HPV vaccine covers the most frequently observed HPV types among men.