Epidemiological characteristics and transmissibility of HPV infection: A long-term retrospective study in Hokkien Golden Triangle, China, 2013–2021

Multiple human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated diseases have put a significant disease burden on the world. Therefore, we conducted a study to explore the epidemiological characteristics of HPV and the transmissibility of its genotypes. HPV testing data was collected from Hospital. A transmission dynamics model of HPV was constructed to simulate and compare the transmissibility of different HPV genotypes, which was quantitatively described by the basic reproduction number (R0). The collected HPV subjects were mainly from Xiamen City, Zhangzhou City and Quanzhou City, together, they are known as the Hokkien golden triangle. There were variations in the distribution of HPV infections by age groups. Among all HPV genotypes, 13 of them had R0 > 1, with 10 of them being high-risk types. The top five were HPV56, 18, 58, 52 and 53, among which, HPV56, 18, 58 and 42 were of high risk, whereas HPV53 was not, and the R0 values for the five were 3.35 (CI: 0.00–9.99), 3.20 (CI: 0.00–6.46), 3.19 (CI: 1.27–6.94), 3.19 (CI: 1.01–8.42) and 2.99 (CI: 0.00–9.39), respectively. In addition, HPV52 had R0 > 1 for about 51 months, which had the longest duration. Most high-risk HPV types in the Hokkien golden triangle could transmit among the population. Therefore, there is a need of further optimization for developing HPV vaccines and better detection methods in the region. •The infection rate of HPV among women in southern Fujian showed a downward trend with the change of years.•The top five types of infection rates were HPV52, HPV58, HPV16, HPV53 and HPV51.•The top five types of HPV transmissibility (R0) are HPV56, HPV18, HPV58, HPV52 and HPV53.•The R0 value of HPV52 exceeds 1 and lasts for 51 months.