Prevalence of human papillomavirus infection and phylogenetic analysis of HPV-16 E6 variants among infected women from Northern Brazil

The main cause of cervical cancer in the world is high risks human papillomavirus infection (mainly represented by HPV-16 and HPV-18), that are associated to the development of malign transformation of the epithelium. HPV prevalence exhibits a wide geographical variability and HPV-16 variants have been related to an increased risk of developing cervical intraepithelial lesion. The aim of this study was to describe DNA-HPV prevalence and HPV-16 variants among a women population from Northern Brazil. One hundred and forty three women, during routine cervical cancer screening, at Juruti Project, fulfilled an epidemiological inquiry and were screened through a molecular HPV test. HPV-16 variants were determined by sequencing the HPV-16 E6 open reading frame. Forty two samples were considered HPV positive (29.4%). None of those had abnormal cytology results. HPV prevalence varied between different age groups (Z(U) = 14.62; p =