Human Papilloma Virus Infection in Kashmiri Women : Assessment of Human Papilloma Virus infection in cervical epithelium of Kashmiri women

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection is estimated to be the most common sexually transmitted infection. Because Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is one of the causal factors in cervical cancer, understanding the epidemiology of this infection is an important step towards developing strategies for prevention. The aim of the present study was to examine the HPV prevalence and distribution of high risk HPV 16 and HPV 18 in cervical smears in a sample of Kashmiri women attending a gynecological outpatient Department at Lal Ded Hospital Srinagar and also to explore the determinants of the infection. The samples that were positive for HPV DNA were subsequently assessed for high-risk consensus primers, types 16 and 18. The overall HPV prevalence as observed in our study was 13.8% among our sample of Kashmiri females. The high risk HPV types 16 and 18 were detected in 10.5% of the entire sample. HPV-16 was the more common type detected than HPV18). The prevalence of HPV infection in Kashmiri women is similar as observed in other states of India. The age pattern of HPV prevalence of the study group showed a general decrease.