Prevalence characteristics of human papillomavirus among women in Henan Province of China

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to analyze the prevalence and genotype distribution of HPV among the female populations in Henan Province, which can provide an evidence for the local governments to make develop strategies for cervical cancer prevention and vaccination. METHODS: The study was designed to analyze the results of cervical swab HPV test results from female patients who visited the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2020 to May 2023. The collected cervical specimens were processed using specialized nucleic acid extraction reagents to obtain purified nucleic acid extracts. Genotype identification was then performed via real-time fluorescence PCR technology with two commercial detection kits. The assay detects 23 HPV genotypes (17 high-risk types: 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 53, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68, 73, 82; and 6 low-risk types: 6, 11, 42, 43, 44, 81). The HPV prevalence was calculated using GraphPad Prism 8.0. RESULTS: The overall HPV prevalence was 21.31% (12,950/60,765) among the 60,765 female patients, of which the single, double, and multiple HPV infections accounted for 14.81% (9,001/60,765), 4.25% (2,584/60,765), and 2.25% (1,365/60,765) of the total cases. 17.82% (10,836/60,765) of the total samples were infected with high-risk HPV (HR-HPV), accounting for 83.67% (10,836/12,950) of the HPV positive women. The most common infection pattern is HPV single infection, accounting for 69.51% of the positive women. The top four most commonly detected types were HPV-52 (4.30% 2,612/60,765), HPV-58 (2.81% 1,710/60,765), HPV-16 (2.81% 1,709/60,765), and HPV-53 (2.25% 1,367/60,765). The positive rate of HPV among different age groups was statistically significant (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: This study provides baseline data on the epidemiological characteristics of HPV. The prevalence of HPV among women in Henan Province is high. The highest prevalence is among women less than 20 years. The predominant genotypes identified were HPV 52, 58, 16, and 53. This genotype distribution suggests that the Gardasil 9 vaccine, which covers HPV 52, 58, and 16, could potentially address a significant proportion of high-risk HPV infections in this population. The high prevalence of HPV 53, a genotype not targeted by current vaccines, warrants further investigation into its oncogenic role and epidemiological significance.