Genital HPV infection is common and multifocal in young men, and its incidence is higher than that reported for similar cohorts of young women. The high rates of HPV infection in men should be considered when strategies for the prevention of HPV infection in female adolescents and young women are being developed.

Background: Although the variant lineages of human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 are well established, their individual associations with high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) have not been extensively evaluated. Methods: Study subjects were women participating in the Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance/ Low-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion Triage Study who were positive for HPV16 or HPV18 at enrollment. These women were followed every 6 months for 2 years. Viral isolates from enrollment samples were characterized by DNA sequencing and classified as variant lineages. Results: Over a 2-year study period, CIN3 was histologically diagnosed in 291 of the 779 HPV16-positive women and 47 of the 275 HPV18-positive women. Among women without CIN2-3 at enrollment, the risk of subsequent CIN3 was 2.7-fold greater for those with HPV16 African-2 [95% confidence

Variants of HPV16 and HPV18 appear to persist longer in a host whose race indicates an ancestral geographic distribution that was once shared with that of the variant-i.e., European variants persist longer in white women, and African variants persist longer in African American women.