Prevalence of human papillomavirus infection in pregnant versus non-pregnant women in Brazil

Purpose: To investigate the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in cervical samples of pregnant and non-pregnant women in South-Brazil. Methods: A prospective study of 91 pregnant and 92 non-pregnant women with no previous history of cervical dysplasia or cancer was carried out. Cervical samples for HPV testing and cytology were collected in each trimester of pregnancy and in the puerperium for pregnant women and at matched intervals for the non-pregnant women. All samples were analyzed through PCR with consensus primers GP5+/GP6+. Genotyping was performed using specific primers. To control for confounding factors, the analysis of multivariate logistic regression was applied. The measure of odds ratio (OR) and the 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) were used. The level of statistical significance was set at 5 % (P ≤ 0.05). Results: HPV DNA was detected in 23/91 (25.3 %) cervical samples from the pregnant women and in 12/92 (13 %) cervical samples from non-pregnant women (P = 0.035). There was a significant association among cervical HPV infection and young age, number of lifetime sexual partners, and the presence of abnormal cervical cytology. HPV16 and HPV18 were the viral types more frequently detected. Out of the 23 HPV-positive pregnant women, 17 (73.9 %) had normal cervical cytology. Conclusion: Our results suggest a higher prevalence of HPV infection in pregnant vs. non-pregnant women. This finding may be related to the relative immunosuppression observed in pregnant women, outlining the importance of the appropriate monitoring of the viral infection in this specific population.