Cervical high‐risk human papillomavirus infection among women residing in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries: Prevalence, type‐specific distribution, and correlation with cervical cytology

Background The scarcity of updated data on the prevalence of cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries hampers the establishment of cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination programs. The current study estimated the prevalence of cervical high‐risk (HR) HPV infection among women residing in some countries of the GCC and analyzed the correlation between HR‐HPV infection types and cytology results. Methods In total, 2478 women residing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain were enrolled in this study. Cervical specimens were subjected to simultaneous liquid‐based cytology and HR‐HPV DNA analysis. Results Of 2478 women, 520 (21%) tested positive for HR‐HPV. Other non‐HPV genotype 16 (HPV16)/HPV18 HR‐HPV was the most frequently detected infection type, accounting for 63.7%. Non‐Arab women had a significantly higher HR‐HPV positivity rate compared with Arab women (31.6% vs 16.4%; P