PREVALENCE AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERISATION OF HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS AMONG WOMEN ATTENDING SELECTED HOSPITALS IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, ABUJA, NIGERIA

Abstract

Cervical Cancer is the second most common cancer caused by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Human papillomavirus infection is the most common sexually transmitted viral infection globally, with approximately 75% of sexually active women and men contracting an infection at some point during their lives. HPV infection and cervical cancer have been associated for a long time. HPV is discovered in 99.7% of cervical cancer specimens. This study determined the prevalence and molecular characterisation of HPV infection among women attending selected hospitals in Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. A total of five hundred and one (501) women volunteers were screened using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). HPV DNA was obtained by extraction and HPV types identified by PCR method using consensus primer sets MY09/MY11 and GP5+ /GP6+ . Phylogenetic analysis was determined using CLUSTALW on UniproUgene software. Data from administered questionnaires was analysed using Chi square (ᵡ2 ) at 95% confidence interval and 0.05 significance level. The analysis was performed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 23 statistical software package. The overall prevalence of HPV infection in this study was 10.98%. Women who participated were within the ages of 15 to 64 years. The results obtained showed high prevalence of HPV among women within the age range of 35 – 44 years (4.80%), while a low prevalence was observed among women between the age range of 15 – 24 years (0.20%).Married women were found to be more infected (7.98%) when compared to the women that were single, divorced or widowed. In consideration of occupation, there was a high prevalence among civil servants (5.60%) compared to farmers and other occupations. Women with tertiary education qualification recorded more rate of infection (7.90%) when compared to those with lower level of education. Demographic data and risk factors such as Age group (ᵡ2 = 9.508, P = 0.050), Educational Status (ᵡ2 = 55.909, P = 0.000), Marital Status (ᵡ2 = 15.390, P = 0.000), HIV Status (ᵡ2 = 11.871, P = 0.001) and Number of sexual Partners (ᵡ2 = 6.252, P = 0.012) were found to have significant association with HPV infection. Nine HPV types (HPV- 6, 16, 18, 31, 58, 66, 70, 72 and 81) were detected in this study with HPV- 70 being the most predominant (26.67%).The phylogenetic tree was constructed using 15 isolates from this study against 45 reference strains selected from NCBI data based on percentage similarity. HPV-6 isolated in this study clustered with isolate from Iran while HPV-18 clustered with isolate from Bayelsa, Nigeria. Mutation was also detected in HPV 6 and HPV 18 strain isolated in the study. There is a need to increase the level of surveillance on females at risk of cervical cancer in the study area, since significant proportion of highly oncogenic strains with a high tendency to transform into malignancy were observed in this study. There is the need for sexual behaviour education and awareness about HPV to be intensified in order to reduce the spread of the infection in the study area.