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. 2008 May 15;197(10):1436-47.
doi: 10.1086/587698.

Type-specific duration of human papillomavirus infection: implications for human papillomavirus screening and vaccination

Helen Trottier  1 , Salaheddin Mahmud, José Carlos M Prado, Joao S Sobrinho, Maria C Costa, Thomas E Rohan, Luisa L Villa, Eduardo L Franco
Affiliations

Type-specific duration of human papillomavirus infection: implications for human papillomavirus screening and vaccination

Helen Trottier et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Understanding the duration of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection may help find suitable end points for vaccine trials and testing intervals in screening studies. We studied genotype-specific infection duration among 2462 women enrolled in the Ludwig-McGill cohort study.

Methods: Cervical specimens collected every 4-6 months were tested by a polymerase chain reaction protocol. Actuarial techniques were used to estimate the duration of HPV infection and to investigate the influence of age, number of sexual partners, and coinfection with multiple HPV types.

Results: At enrollment, the prevalence of infection with high-risk HPV types was 10.6%, and the prevalence of infection with low-risk HPV types was 6.1%; incidence rates were 6.1 and 5.0 infections per 1000 women-months, respectively. Prevalent infections took longer to clear than incident infections (mean time to clearance, 18.6 months vs. 13.5 months). The mean duration of incident infection with high- and low-risk HPV varied according to the analytic approach used to measure this variable and showed considerable variation by HPV type (range, 5.1-15.4 months). Age and number of partners did not influence infection duration, whereas coinfection was associated with increased infection duration. The mean duration of HPV-16 monoinfection was 11.0 months, and the mean duration of HPV-16 coinfection was 15.4 months.

Conclusion: There was considerable variation among HPV types with regard to the duration of infection. Coinfection with multiple types contributed to an increased infection duration.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest: none reported.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Kaplan-Meier curves for time to clearance of prevalent and incident human papillomavirus (HPV) infections. See the text for descriptions of HPVs with a high oncogenic risk (HR) and those with a low oncogenic risk (LR). Solid lines denote incident infection, and dashed lines denote prevalent infection.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Duration of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, by age. See the text for descriptions of HPVs with a high oncogenic risk (HR) and those with a low oncogenic risk (LR). Bars denote 95% confidence intervals, dashed lines denote pooled-probe positivity values, and solid lines denote weighted (type-specific) values.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Duration of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, by lifetime number of sex partners. See the text for descriptions of HPVs with a high oncogenic risk (HR) and those with a low oncogenic risk (LR). Bars denote 95% confidence intervals, dashed lines denote pooled-probe positivity values, and solid lines denote weighted (type-specific) values.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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