title: Early natural history of incident, type-specific human papillomavirus infections in newly sexually active young women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Characterizing short-term detection patterns of young women's incident α-genus human papillomavirus (HPV) infections may further our understanding of HPV transmission.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 2000 and 2007, we followed 18- to 22-year-old female university students with triannual HPV DNA and Papanicolaou testing. Using Kaplan-Meier methods, we estimated duration of detectable, type-specific incident infections; time to redetection (among infections that became undetectable); and time to cervical lesion development after incident infection. We evaluated risk factors for short-term persistent versus transient infection with logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three hundred three incident, type-specific infections were detected in 85 sexually active women. Median time to first negative test after incident infection was 9.4 (95% CI: 7.8-11.2) months; 90.6% of infections became undetectable within 2 years. About 19.4% of infections that became undetectable were redetected within 1 year. Cervical lesions were common and 60% were positive for multiple HPV types in concurrent cervical swabs. Incident HPV detection in the cervix only (vs. the vulva/vagina only or both sites) was associated with short-term transience.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although most incident infections became undetectable within 2 years, redetection was common. Cervical lesions were a common early manifestation of HPV infection.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It remains unclear whether potentially modifiable risk factors can be identified to reduce infection duration (and transmission likelihood).
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, 325 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104, USA. rlw@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Rachel L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Winer
authors.forename: James P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: Qinghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Long Fu
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cherne
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: O'Reilly
authors.forename: Nancy B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Kiviat
authors.forename: Laura A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Koutsky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002577:Uterine Cervical Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology; D055815:Young Adult