Prevalence of Genital Papillomavirus Infection Among Women Attending a College Student Health Clinic or a Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic

Abstract

We examined 454 women randomly selected from a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Clinic and 545 consecutive college women undergoing annual examination. Patients were examined for visible genital warts, koilocytes, and human papillomavirus (HPV) antigen on cervical smears and for cervical HPV DNA types 6, 11, 16, 18, and 31. Genital warts were found in 11%of STD Clinic patients and 20% of students (P < .001). Among those women without genital warts, HPV DNA or antigen was detected in cervical specimens from 10.6% of STD Clinic patients and 11.4% of students (P = .73), with HPV type 16, 18, or 31 being 9.8 times more frequent than cervical HPV 6 or 11 among students and 5.8 times more frequent among STD Clinic patients. Dysplasia was present in 53% of those with HPV type 6 or 11 and in 41% of those with HPV type 16, 18, or 31 DNA.