Socio-Economic Factors and its Correlation with HPV Positivity

Background: Impact of Cervical cancer on the women's life is gradually increasing in India. The causative organism, Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) detection holds the potential to be used as a tool to identify women at risk. There is a pressing need for identifying prevalence of asymptomatic cervical HPV infection in the population to prevent its progression into cervical cancer. Objectives: The objectives of this study is to correlate some of the risk factors like education and financial status with the HPV positivity in women prone for cervical cancer. Materials & Methods: 50 women of reproductive age group visiting the gynecology outpatient department in Hyderabad were selected and subjected to polymerase chain reaction, using GP5, GP6 primers to detect HPV. Statistical Analysis of the data was done. Results: 7(14%) women tested positive for HPV DNA and HPV prevalence was noted to be more common among literates of middle & low income group. Conclusion: The study generates prevalence of sub-clinical HPV in the women visiting a tertiary care institute as well as peripheral health centers. This data if done in larger groups may be useful for laying guidelines for mass screening of HPV, treatment and prophylaxis in the population. In future perhaps cervical cancer screening will shift from a cytology based approach to one in which search for HPV becomes the focus of disease detection with refined and better protocols.