Abstract
Objectives. HPV infections are ubiquitous. For most infections, we lose track of the presence of the virus in host in less than three years after the start of infection. The mechanisms regulating the persistence of HPV infection are still partially understood. In this work, we focus on incident HPV detection in young women and we characterise the dynamics of these infections and evaluate the effect of genotype and host socio-economic factors on the duration of HPV detection and time between detection.
Methods. We investigated human papillomavirus (HPV) genotype detection patterns in 182 young women in Montpellier, France. We relied on SPF 10 -LiPA25 screening assay for the simultaneous detection of 25 HPV genotypes. We used survival analysis tools with frailty effects to investigate the contribution of viral and host factors to variations in the time of HPV detectability, time of first incident detection, and time before re-detection.
Results. Women of the PAPCLEAR cohort experienced numerous positive HPV events, including frequent redetection of the same genotype. We retrieve classical results that HR-genotypes are detected for longer duration than LR-genotypes. HR-genotypes were also more liekly to be detected than LR-genotypes during the follow-up. The number of lifetime sexual partner was strongly associated with increased risk of new positive detection while vaccination was related to a lower risk of displaying incident infections. Covariates related to socio-economic difficulties were associated with longer duration of HPV positivity.
Conclusions. Young women display numerous event of HPV detection, with frequent codetections of multiple genotypes at the same time and redetection of the same type after periods of no detection.
These new detection are almost certainly the result of new acquisition from sexual partners, with little evidence of re-emergence of latent infections. A better characterisation of transient infections might help unveil doubts and misconception on HPV physiopathology, favouring adherence to preventive policies.