High-risk papillomavirus infection among women living with human Immunodeficiency virus: Brazilian multicentric study

Cervical cancer is an important health issue in Latin America. Although HPV infections can have spontaneous clearance, persistence of high-risk (HR) HPV is a risk factor for cervical cancer among women and it is even higher in HIV-infected women. To determine the prevalence of HR-HPV and risk factors among HIV-infected women attending reference services for HIV/AIDS in different regions of Brazil. Cross-sectional study conducted among HIV-infected women attended at referral care centers for HIV/AIDS in nine states of Brazil. Women from 18 to 49 years that accept to participate and were not pregnant at the time of the approach were recruited for the study. The HPV screening was realized using qPCR in closed system, in vitro Diagnostic, COBAS (R)-HPV Roche. The cytology results were available by the Bethesda System. A total of 802(89.1%) from the selected women agreed to participate in the study. Median age was 39(Inter quartile range [IQR34-46]) years and median education was 9(IQR6-11) years. General prevalence of HR-HPV was 28.4%(228/802). HPV-16 prevalence rate was 8.1%(65/802), HPV-18 was 3.7%(30/802) and other types of HR-HPV were 23.6% (189/802). Risk factors for HR-HPV infection in the multivariate logistic regression analysis were: age ranging from 18 to 34 years (OR = 1.43[95%CI:1.18-1.75]), illicit drugs use (OR = 1.61[95%CI:1.10-2.42]) and abnormal cervical cytology (OR = 1.56[95%CI:1.34-1.81]). Results showed a prevalence rate of 28.4% of HR-HPV infection in women living with HIV in Brazil. These infections were significantly associated with having less than 35 years old, illicit drug use and abnormal cervical cytology.