Human Papillomavirus Infection Prevalence in Women Referred to Health Clinic of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection seems to be the most common sexually transmitted infection. High-risk (HR) human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence has been shown to correlate well with cervical cancer incidence rates. Since there is little known about the epidemiology of this infection in Tehran, we designed to estimate the prevalence of HPV in some areas in Tehran. Cervical specimens were obtained from 825 married women aged 21-59 years from the general population of Tehran, Iran according to the standardised protocol of the IARC International HPV surveys. HPV was detected using a GP5+/6+ PCR-based assay. HPV prevalence in the general population was 7.8% (5.1% of high-risk types), with no statistically significant variations by age. Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia was diagnosed in 4.1% of women, of whom 35.3% were HPV-positive. HPV16 was confirmed as the most common type among women with both normal (1.8%) and abnormal (8.8%) cytology. HPV positivity was significantly higher among divorced women, women in polygamous marriages and those reporting husband's extramarital affairs. However the prevalence of HPV seems not high in comparison with other international data, more molecular and seroepidemiological survey in national level needs to have a better perspective.