Abstract
BackgroundSub-Saharan countries including Nigeria have the highest burden of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection in the world. Most studies on HPV surveillance in Nigeria were done in the southern part of the country. Geographical and socio-cultural diversity of Nigeria makes these data unlikely to be universally representative for the entire country. Northern Nigeria especially the North-East carries a higher prevalence of cervical cancer and many of its risk factors. The region may be harbouring a higher prevalence of HPV infection with a possibility of different genotypic distribution. This study was carried out to determine the burden and confirm the predominant HPV genotypes among women presenting for cervical cancer screening at the Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe (FTHG), North-eastern, Nigeria.MethodsThe study was an observational hospital based cross sectional study among women who presented for cervical cancer screening in FTHG. A total of 209 consenting women were tested for cervical HPV infection using PCR. DNA sequencing was carried out on positive samples to determine the prevalent HPV genotypes.ResultsThe prevalence of cervical HPV infection among the participants with mean age of 39.6 ± 10.4 years was 48.1 %. The five most predominant genotypes were 18, 16, 33, 31 and 35, with prevalence of 44.7 %, 13.2 %, 7.9 %, 5.3 % and 5.3 % respectively. Other genotypes observed were 38, 45, 56, 58, 82 and KC5. Multiple HPV infections were detected among 7.9 % of participants. Risk factors such as level of education (X2 = 15.897; p = 0.007), age at sexual debut (X2 = 6.916; p = 0.009), parity (X2 = 23.767; p = 0.000), number of life time sexual partners (X2 = 7.805; p = 0.005), age at first pregnancy (X2 = 10.554; p = 0.005) and history of other malignancies (X2 = 7.325; p = 0.007) were found to have a statistically significant association with HPV infection.ConclusionThis study identified a high burden of HPV infection in Northern Nigeria while also confirming HPV 18 and 16 as the most predominant genotypes. It further justifies the potential benefit of the currently available HPV vaccines in the area. A larger and community based study is however recommended for better representation of the area.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13027-015-0035-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Among the approximately 200 known Human Papillomavirus (HPV) types, about 40 can infect the cervix out of which 13 types (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59 and 66) from among the alpha species have been classified as group 1 carcinogens [1,2,3]
A total of two hundred and nine women participated in the study with their mean age being 39.6 years and standard deviation (SD) of ±10.4 years
The mean age of women found to be positive for HPV was 40.79 (±11.23) years compared to 38.49 (±9.47) years among those with no HPV infection
Summary
Among the approximately 200 known HPV types, about 40 can infect the cervix out of which 13 types (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59 and 66) from among the alpha species have been classified as group 1 carcinogens [1,2,3]. Of these oncogenic viruses, HPV-16 and HPV-18 are the most prevalent worldwide. This study was carried out to determine the burden and confirm the predominant HPV genotypes among women presenting for cervical cancer screening at the Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe (FTHG), North-eastern, Nigeria
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