Incidence of Cervical Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions Associated With HIV Serostatus, CD4 Cell Counts, and Human Papillomavirus Test Results

Abstract

Cervical cancer screening recommendations in the United States have been recently updated and now advise using an interval of 3 years between screenings in healthy women 30 years or older who have normal cytology results and who test negative for oncogenic (cancer-associated) human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA.^1,2 The recommended interval is 6 to 12 months for women with normal cytology results and detectable oncogenic HPV. If no HPV test is conducted, 3 consecutive normal annual Papanicolaou (Pap) smear results are required before the Pap smear frequency is changed to once every 2 or 3 years. Support for these recommendations comes from several large observational studies.^1-5