[Prevalence of human papillomavirus and associated risk factors in women affiliated with state health insurance in Posadas, Misiones (Argentina)].

Background: Human papilloma virus (HPV) is one of the most frequent sexually transmitted infections, especially among young people.

Aims: To describe the prevalence of genital HPV infections, to identify clinical-epidemiological factors associated with them and to determine the frequency of viral strains.

Methods: Endocervical samples were studied of 505 women between 15 and 49 years old, who attended the laboratory of the Institute of Social Security, residents of Posadas, Misiones, for the study of vaginal exudate, between January 2012 and June 2013. A 450-base pair fragment within the HPV L1 region was amplified. Genotype detection was performed through the study of the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP).

Results: The prevalence of total HPV carriage was 30.7%, and of these 71.6% corresponded to high risk (mainly HPV 16 [35.1%], 58 [10.8%] and 31 [8.1%]). HPV detection was higher in women aged 15 to 24 years (OR: 1.48, 95% CI: 1.01-2.18) and with more sexual partners (OR: 1.81, 95% CI: 1, 02-3.22). There was no association with pregnancy, stability of the couple, contraceptive methods, age at onset of sexual intercourse, or smoking.

Conclusions: The identification and typing of HPV in this study provides information regarding the high prevalence of HPV and the substantial proportion of cases with oncogenic genotypes among sexually active women in this region of Argentina.