Comparison of incident cervical and vulvar/vaginal human papillomavirus infections in newly sexually active young women.
Vulvar/vaginal human papillomavirus (HPV) infections may precede cervical infections, and certain low-risk types may display vaginal tropism. We evaluated whether incident infections in young women display site-specific preferences by HPV risk group or phylogenetic species. Although incident infections were more likely to be detected in the vulva/vagina than in the cervix (odds ratio, 4.38 [95% confidence interval, 2.51-7.63]), the majority were first detected at both sites. Low- or undetermined-risk types were more likely than high-risk types to be first detected in the vulva/vagina (P = .03). Site-by-species differences were not statistically significant. Our results suggest that low- or undetermined-risk HPV types preferentially infect vaginal epithelium.
Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle 98103, USA. rlw@u.washington.edu
Rachel L
RL
Winer
James P
JP
Hughes
Qinghua
Q
Feng
Sandra
S
O'Reilly
Nancy B
NB
Kiviat
Laura A
LA
Koutsky
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D002577:Uterine Cervical Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D014623:Vaginal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D014845:Vulvar Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*