Prevalence of human papillomavirus types associated with cervical lesions in Sergipe state, Northeastern Brazil: high frequency of a possibly carcinogenic type.

Persistent infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main cause of cervical cancer and the prevalence of HPV types varies depending on the geographic region. Therefore, this study assessed the prevalence of HPV types in women with cervical lesions from Sergipe state, Northeastern Brazil. A cross-sectional study was conducted in women with cervical lesions from March to December 2014. These lesions were investigated by PCR and HPV types were identified by DNA sequencing. 432 patients were included, of which 337 patients tested positive for HPV. Eighteen different HPV types were detected, and high-risk HPV types were detected in 69.2%. HPV 16 (63.4%) was the most prevalent HPV type found, followed by HPV 66 (4.6%), HPV 18 (1.6%) and HPV 45 (1.4%). These results highlight the importance of the high prevalence of HPV 66, which is a possibly carcinogenic virus type not covered by the available vaccines. The prevalence of HPV 16 was high in the studied population, reaffirming the importance of young vaccination. However, the high prevalence of HPV 66 found in this study shows the importance of monitoring the diversity of HPV types in different populations and geographic regions to better understand the impacts of current HPV vaccines.