title: Human papillomavirus prevalence in the oral cavity of men who have sex with men: a study of its first from Beirut, Lebanon.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the most common sexually transmissible viral infection worldwide. HPV is highly prevalent in sexually active men who have sex with men (MSM). The main objective of this study is to assess HPV prevalence in the oral cavity of MSM from Beirut, Lebanon.
  
  
  METHODS
  From November 2015 to January 2016, 42 MSM were recruited using respondent-driven sampling and provided oral samples for HPV DNA and for linear array testing to detect HPV type.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 28 (66.67%) HIV-negative and 14 (33.33%) HIV-positive MSM were included. Overall, HPV prevalence in the oral cavity was 10% (95% CI 0.93-19.07) among all participants, but there was no statistical difference according to HIV status. The HPV type was exclusively HPV-6.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings did not find an urgent need for routine HPV prevalence and screening for cancers in the oral cavity of a MSM group in Lebanon; however, they confirm previous findings about geographic variations in HPV prevalences.
authors.affiliation: Dermatology-STI department, Keserwan Medical Center Hospital, Ghazir, Lebanon.|Corresponding author. Email: ismaelmaatouk@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ismaël
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Maatouk
authors.affiliation: Laboratory Department, Trad Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Khalil
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abdo