Prevalence and genotype distribution of human papillomavirus infection in asymptomatic women in Liaoning province, China.

Infection by human papillomavirus (HPV) is a necessary cause of cervical cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and genotype distribution of HPV infection in Chinese women who were asymptomatic for cervical diseases. Cervical cytology samples were collected from 6479 asymptomatic Chinese women of Liaoning province, and tested for various HPV genotypes using a chip hybridization assay. HPV was found in 10.3% of all the asymptomatic women studied, with the prevalence of high risk HPV (HR HPV) and low risk HPV (LR HPV) being 9.5% and 1.1%, respectively. HPV genotypes 16, 52, and 58 were found the most frequently genotypes in the HR HPV positive women, and were present in 26.2%, 19.4% and 13.8%, respectively. A graph of HR HPV positive infection rates as a function of age is U-shaped, with a peak in women less than 30 years old and a second peak among women older than 50 years. Nearly half of the women infected with either HR HPV or LR HPV presented a normal looking cervix upon visual examination. The current study demonstrates that the epidemiology of HPV infection in asymptomatic Chinese women in Liaoning province is different from that in women from other regions, even from patients with cervical lesions in the same region. These findings could be used to guide the generation and design of an HPV vaccine for this population.