Detection of human papillomavirus high-risk genotypes in rural women of Lucknow, North India.

Background: Human papilloma virus (HPV) has been widely implicated in cervical carcinogenesis and 90% of carcinoma cervix cases are due to high-risk HPV infection. This study was done to find the high-risk HPV genotypes in the rural women of Lucknow, North India.

Materials And Methods: HPV-DNA testing has been carried out in 130 cases of squamous intraepithelial lesions (SILs) of the cervix to find HPV status and type of high-risk HPV genotype infecting the rural women. These cases were collected from the rural cervical cancer screening program carried out in the villages of West Lucknow, North India.

Results: HPV status in 130 SIL cases revealed HPV positivity in only 17 cases (13.1%), whereas the remaining 113 cases were HPV negative (86.9%). HPV genotypes detected in the study were HPV-18, HPV-31, HPV-33, and HPV-35. HPV positivity was found highly associated with the young and sexually active group of women complaining of vaginal discharge. High HPV infection rate was also seen with multiparity and illiteracy as majority of women attending the camps were multiparous and illiterate.

Conclusions: The present study revealed highly oncogenic HPV-18 alone or in combination with multiple infections of high-risk genotypes - 31, 33, and 35 - in the rural women of Lucknow, North India. Since HPV vaccine currently available in India is for HPV-16 and HPV-18 combined, efforts should be made to make region-specific vaccine according to their prevalence in that particular state of the country to provide effective HPV vaccination.