Prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) among college going girls using self collected urine samples from Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu

Purpose: The study aimed to identify the status of HPV infection among young sexually unexposed girls from Tiruchriapalli district, Tamilnadu, India. Methods: The distribution of HPV genotypes was evaluated by PCR DNA genotyping after self sampling from 246 study subjects. Results: Positivity for HPV DNA was reported among 9.2 % of the study subjects. The most frequently detected HPV type was HPV 16 (0.8 %) followed by HPV 11 (0.4 %). Conclusion: Our results suggest that the age did not seem to be a cofactor for HPV infection and nevertheless, sexual intercourse is an important factor for HPV infection. Moreover, these results demonstrate that HPV detection performed in self collected samples may be important to appraise better preventive strategies and monitor the influence of vaccination programmes within the population.