Human papillomavirus infections in women with clinical gynaecological diseases in southwest China.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infections in women with different gynaecological diseases (GDs) and ages in southwest China. With the assay of reverse dot blot, a total of 5544 cervical samples, including 1008 normal and 4536 abnormal specimens from women with GDs, were assayed for HPV detection. For the normal group, 20.2% (204/1008) tested positive for HPV, of which 40.2% (82/204) were high-risk (HR-HPV) genotypes. In the 4536 abnormal samples, 1569 women (34.6%) tested positive for HPV: 73.5% (1153/1569) had a single infection, 17.7% (277/1569) dual infection and 8.8% (138/1569) multiple HPV infection. Of 1569 HPV-positive specimens, 58.7% (921/1569) were infected with only HR-HPV genotypes. Significant differences in HPV infections were found among women of different ages (P < 0.01), number of pregnancies (P < 0.01), GDs (P < 0.01) and age at first sex (P < 0.01). In the present study, we found a high prevalence of HPV infection in women with GDs in southwest China. In addition to HPV types 16 and 18, a significant proportion of other HR-HPV genotypes were detected in this population.