Prevalence of high‐risk human papillomavirus type 16/18 infection among women with normal cytology: risk factor analysis and implications for screening and prophylaxis

Abstract

Although the sample size was small, based on the observation that HR-HPV 16 and 18 contributed significantly to the overall HPV prevalence in our setting, we speculate that testing/prophylaxis for these prevalent high-risk types could perhaps make cervical cancer screening and preventive programmes cost-effective. Larger community-based studies on HPV prevalence and persistence are required to validate these findings before definitive recommendations can be made to the policy makers.