title: Prevalence of HPV high and low risk types in cervical samples from the Italian general population: a population based study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This multicenter study describes the type-specific prevalence of HPV infection in the general population from central and southern Italy, comparing the data with previously published Italian studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Women aged from 25 to 65 who attended cervical cancer screening in five different Italian regions were tested for HPV infection with Hybrid Capture II (HCII) low and high risk probes. Women repeating Pap-test upon unsatisfactory or positive results, or as a post-treatment and post-colposcopy follow-up analysis, were excluded from our study. High risk (HR) HPV positive samples were typed using GP5+/GP6+ primed PCR, followed by Reverse Line Blot for 18 high/intermediate risk HPV types, while low risk (LR) HPV positive samples were tested with type specific primers for HPV6 and HPV11.
  
  
  RESULTS
  3817 women had a valid HCII test: 350 of them (9.2%) were positive for HR probes, 160 (4.2%) for LR probes, while 57 women were positive for both. Multiple infections were detected in 97 HR HPV positive women. The most common types were HPV 16 (3%), 31 (1.2%), 51 (1%). HPV6 ranked fifth (0.6%), HPV18 ranked tenth (0.5%) and HPV11 sixteenth (0.3%).In Sardinia the prevalence of high-risk infection was 13%, significantly higher than the mean value (p < 0.00005).The distribution of the most frequent types did not significantly differ by centre (p = 0.187) and age (p = 0.085).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Because cervical cancer incidence and Pap test coverage is lower in southern than in northern Italy, a lower prevalence of high-risk infections in the general population was expected in the south. However, prevalence detected in this study for the south of the country is slightly but significantly higher than the rest of Italy. The consequence may be an epidemic of cervical cancer in the next decades if adequate screening programs are not implemented there.
authors.affiliation: Laziosanità-Agency for Public Health, Lazio Region, Via di S, Costanza 53, 00198-Rome, Italy. giorgirossi@asplazio.it
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Giorgi Rossi
authors.forename: Simonetta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bisanzi
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Paganini
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Iasi
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Angeloni
authors.forename: Aurora
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scalisi
authors.forename: Rosalba
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Macis
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Pini
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chini
authors.forename: Francesca Maria
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Carozzi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000821:virology*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D014626:Vaginal Smears
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral