Prevalence of human papillomavirus types in women screened by cytology in Germany

Incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer are higher in Germany than in other Western European countries. Type-specific human papillomavirus (HPV) distribution was investigated for the first time in Germany in an epidemiological study including 8,101 women. Women above the age of 30 years, self-referring for cervical cancer screening, were enrolled in two study centers in Hannover (Northern Germany) and Tübingen (Southern Germany). Participants were screened by the Pap smear and the hybrid capture 2 (HC2) test using the high-risk probe. All samples that were positive by the HC2 test were genotyped using the prototype PGMY09/11 PCR line blot assay. Most women in the study population had a negative Pap smear (96.7%). Prevalence of high-risk type HPV detected by HC2 was 6.4% and prevalence of carcinogenic types detected by PGMY09/11 was 4.3%. Of the PGMY09/11 PCR-positive women, 70.2% had a single infection, 28.1% had multiple infectionsand 1.7% remained uncharacterized. 32 different HPV types were detected using PGMY09/11 PCR. HPV 16, 31, 52, 51, 18, and 45 were the most common carcinogenic types in the study population. Among women with histologically confirmed high-grade lesions HPV 16, 45, 58, 18, 31, 33, and 52 were the predominant types. These results provide valu-able information for the management of HPV infections in Germany, both in terms of future strategies of screening and vaccination.