Pre-vaccination seroprevalence of 15 human papillomavirus (HPV) types among women in the population-based Slovenian cervical screening program

Summary, in English

Objectives: To estimate seroprevalence of 11 high-risk (hr) HPV types and four low-risk (lr) HPV types among 20-64 years old Slovenian women participating in the population-based cervical cancer screening program. Methods: Serum samples from 3259 women were tested for HPV type-specific antibodies with a multiplexed pseudovirion-based serological assay (PsV-Luminex). Results: Seropositivity for any of the 15 HPV types was 65.7%, any of the 11 hr-HPV types 59.2%, and any of the four lr-HPV types 33.1%. Antibodies against at least one of the four vaccine HPV types (HPV 6, 11, 16, 18) were detected in 40.8% women. Among hr-HPV types, seropositivity was highest for HPV 16 (25.2%) and among lr-HPV types for HPV 6(19.1%). Age-specific HPV16 seropositivity was highest among 30-39 years old (29.6%) and decreased with increasing age to 14.0% among 60-64 years old. Conclusion: The lifetime sexual exposure to genital HPV types is substantial, emphasising the need for HPV vaccination. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

• Author: Veronika Ucakar; Mateja M. Jelen; Helena Faust; Mario Poljak; Joakim Dillner; Irena Klavs
• Department/s: Clinical Microbiology, Malmö; BioCARE: Biomarkers in Cancer Medicine improving Health Care, Education and Innovation
• Publishing year: 2013
• Language: English
• Pages: 4935-4939
• Publication/Series: Vaccine
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 43
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2013.08.038
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Topic: Microbiology in the medical area
• Keywords: HPV; Seroprevalence; Cross-sectional study; Slovenia
• Status: Published
• Research group: Clinical Microbiology, Malmö
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1873-2518