This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
HPV prevalence, vaccination rates appeared low in adolescents
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
SAN FRANCISCO — Researchers observed that the overall prevalence of HPV in female adolescents aged 13 to 19 years appeared low. They also found that the proportion of vaccination was low among adolescents, including girls aged 13 to 15 years — an age group typically recommended for vaccination.
These findings were presented at the 52nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
Susanna Esposito, MD, director of the Pediatric Clinic 1 at Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico of Mian, Italy, and associate professor of Pediatrics at the University of Milan, and colleagues enrolled 1,171 girls with a mean age of 16 years who were attending two pediatric units in Milan.
Susanna Esposito
Participants completed questionnaires to determine medical history. Esposito and colleagues collected urine samples to study HPV DNA. DNA extraction and amplification of the L1 gene fragment were also performed. Genotyping of HPV DNA-positive samples was carried out using the restriction fragment length polymorphism technique with three restriction enzymes.
Among the 89.5% of participants who already had HPV test results, 0.95% (95% CI, 0.5-1.8) were positive. No participants aged 13 to 15 years tested positive for HPV. Of the 279 participants who were sexually active (aged 13 to 19 years), 3.6% tested positive for HPV.
Twenty-two percent of participants aged 13 to 15 years were effectively vaccinated compared with 13% of participants aged 16 to 19 years. Among the 10 HPV-positive tests, eight were associated with high-risk genotypes — HPV 16, HPV 31, HPV 35, HPV 39, HPV 51, HPV 56, HPV 58, HPV 82 — and two with a low-risk genotype — HPV 6 and HPV 42.
For more information:
Esposito S. #027. Presented at: 52nd ICAAC; Sept. 9-12, 2012; San Francisco.
Disclosure: Esposito reports no relevant financial disclosures.