Distribution of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes in women attending a private clinic

implications for cervical cancer screening strategy

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the prevalence and distribution of HPV genotypes in women from Ceará who were treated in private. Methods: a cross-sectional study including 3,920 cervical samples analyzed during the year 2023, from various private clinics. The samples were analyzed using the Allplex™ HPV28 Detection kit (Seegene). We assessed the prevalence of positive cases, each genotype detected, and genotype associations. Results: the overall prevalence of
HPV was 29.2% (n = 1,143). Among HPV-positive cases, 61.3% showed single-genotype detection and 38.7% showed multiple-genotype detection. High-risk HPV DNA was identified in 43.9% of the samples, with higher frequencies for HPV 54 (5.8%), HPV 53 (5.4%), and HPV 52 (5.2%). The highest proportion of detectable HPV DNA results was observed in women under 25 years of age (45.8%), followed by those aged 25 to 34 years (37.1%). Conclusion: the high prevalence of oncogenic genotypes, especially HPV-52, highlights the need for continuous epidemiological surveillance and further studies correlating these genotypes with the risk of pre-invasive and invasive cervical lesions.