High-risk and multiple human papillomavirus (HPV) infections in cancer-free Jamaican women

Angela Watt, David Garwood, Maria Jackson, Novie Younger, Monica Smikle, Horace Fletcher and Norma McFarlane-Anderson

Infection with oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV)types is the primary cause of cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women worldwide [1]. In developing countries, cervical cancer is second to breast cancer as the cause of cancer deaths in women of reproductive age [2] and is still a significant public health problem among women in the Caribbean [3]. To date, over200 HPV types of which 40 types infect the genital tract, have been identified worldwide [4]. The most recent datashow that in Jamaica, the age-specific incidence is 19/100,000 [5]. HPV genotypes 16, 18 and 45 were identified in Colposcopy clinic patients [6]. The development of aprophylactic vaccine that targets HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18 has increased interest in the ethnic and geographical distributionsof HPV genotypes. This study focuses on the presence of high-risk and multiple HPV infections in a population of cancer-free Jamaican women and seeks to determine whether HPV infection is associated with lifestyle and sexual practices.

Exerpt:
The most important finding was that unlike the genotype distribution patterns seen in North America, Europe and some parts of Asia [11,12] HPV types 16 and 18 were not the most common high-risk genotypes. In our population, HPV types 45 and 58 accounted for 40.5% of the genotypes. Other groups, e.g. Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba and parts of Africa [13-18], have also reported different distributions of genotypes indicating that types 16 and 18 were not predominant in these populations. The recently developed prophylactic vaccines may therefore not be efficacious in our and similar populations.

Read the entire study here.

[Note from SaneVax:  This study was originally published in 2008, with no disclosed pharmaceutical funding. Do medical professionals question the efficacy of vaccines that target HPV genotypes 16 and 18, when those may not be the prevalent strains in their geographical area? Apparently not! Business goes on as usual. Perhaps this indicates the ‘medical industry’ has something other than your health as their primary concern. Let the buyer beware.]