Age-specific HPV prevalence among 116, 052 women in Australia's renewed cervical screening program: A new tool for monitoring vaccine impact. Issue 3 (14th January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brotherton, Julia ML.; Hawkes, David; Sultana, Farhana; Malloy, Michael J.; Machalek, Dorothy A.; Smith, Megan A.; Garland, Suzanne M.; Saville, Marion
• Is Part Of: Vaccine. Volume 37:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 412
• Page End: 416
• Publication Date: 2019-01-14
• Subjects: Human papillomavirus -- Prevalence -- Cervical screening -- Australia; Vaccines -- Periodicals; 615.372
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.11.075
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0264-410X

Abstract

Highlights: HPV based cervical screening can generate precise HPV prevalence estimates. Among 116, 118 samples from Australian women aged 25–74, 9.2% had oncogenic HPV. HPV16/18 was stable with age, unlike other oncogenic types, due to HPV vaccination. Abstract: Australia's transition to primary human papillomavirus (HPV) based cervical screening, has for the first time, provided a passive mechanism for monitoring the impact of vaccination on infection prevalence among women attending screening. We assessed oncogenic HPV prevalence by single year of age in the first 7 months of the program, using data collected from a large screening laboratory in Victoria, Australia, which is routinely screening using cobas 4800, cobas 6800 and Seegene assays. Among 116, 052 primary screening samples from women aged 25–74, 9.25% (95%CI: 9.09–9.42%) had oncogenic HPV detected: 2.14% (95%CI: 2.05–2.22%) were 16/18 positive and 7.12% (95%CI: 6.97–7.27%) were positive for only non-16/18 HPV. Prevalence peaked at age 25–29 then decreased with age, but this was driven by non-16/18 types. HPV16/18 prevalence remained low and flat across ages, contrasting with pre-vaccination epidemiology when HPV16/18 peaked in young women. HPV-based screening can precisely monitor HPV prevalence.