The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the important risk factor of cervical and other anogenital cancers in woman. Two prophylactic vaccines have been provided for prevention of HPV-associated cancers since 2007 in many countries. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of HPV in 14-17 aged girls in Moscow region.
640 girls from 14 to 17 years of age from schools and colleges of Moscow region were examined in polyclinics during annual prophylactic medical examination. For additional gynecological examination concent forms were signed by parents of girls. Cervical specimens were collected and tested fo 14 types of HPV by using AmpliSens®PCR Kits (12 high risk HPV types and HPV 6/11).
Among all 640 girls 176 (27,5%) were sexually active. Most of them (80,3%) were students of colleges vs 19,7% girls from schools. Among schoolgirls 13,5% (n=7) had become sexually active at <15 years of age, 20,8% (n=53) at 15-16 years of age, 35,2% (n=116) at 16-17 years of age. The prevalence of high risk HPV types (HR HPV) among all girls was 17% while among sexually active adolescents was observed 50,5%. 19,8% samples from from sexually active adolescents were positive for HR HPV 16/18 and 3,0% for LR HPV 6/11. Interestingly, 4,5% of sexually naive girls were HR HPV positive.
Our study confirms high prevalence of human papillomavirus soon after sexual debut of adolescent girls.These findings support early age of vaccination as implemented by most public health programs to maximize effectiveness of HPV vaccination strategies.