title: High prevalence of genital human papillomavirus type 52 and 58 infection in women attending gynecologic practitioners in South Taiwan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We attempted to determine the prevalence of genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in women attending gynecologic practitioners in South Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  The population included 4383 women aged 16-78 seeking HPV testing at primary gynecologic practitioners regardless of their cervical cytology results. HPV DNA was identified from cervical swabs using semi-nested polymerase chain reaction with MY11, MY09/HMB01, and MY11/bioGP6+ primers. Genotyping for high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) was done separately by a HR-HPV chip, which contained 13 type-specific oligonucleotides on a nylon membrane.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall HPV prevalence was 19.3% (849/4383), 11.1% (488/4383) were confirmed as HR-HPV positive. Among the women with HR-HPV infection, HPV-16 was the most prevalent type (22.1%; 108/488), followed by HPV-52 (21.3%; 104/488), and HPV-58 (19.9%; 97/488). Multiple infections were detected in 73 women (15.0%; 73/488). For women with age 30 or younger, the overall HPV and HR-HPV prevalence were 32.0% and 20.7%, respectively, which were significantly higher than those of women age older than 30 (17.2% and 9.5%, P < 0.001). More multiple infections (22.1% vs. 12.4%) were also found in women with age 30 or younger (P = 0.021). However, the relative contribution of types to the overall HR-HPV positive among different age groups remains the same.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results showed an HPV prevalence that is similar compared with worldwide levels. HPV prevalence and multiple infections rate were decreasing across the age groups. Unlike most previous studies, the relative high prevalence of HPV 52 and 58 among South Taiwan women has important implications in vaccine prophylaxis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Yen-Ying
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Jau-Sung
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Moh
authors.forename: Yu-Che
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.forename: Shu-Yun
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Chan-Chao
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: ChangChien
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005831:Genital Diseases, Female / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000145:classification*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D015995:Prevalence; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology