The management of cervical disease is changing worldwide as a result of HPV vaccination and the increasing use of HPV testing for cervical screening. However, the impact of vaccination on the performance of HPV based screening strategies is unknown. The SHEVa (Scottish HPV Prevalence in Vaccinated women) projects are designed to gain insight into the impact of vaccination on the performance of clinically validated HPV assays. Samples collated from women attending for first cervical smear who had been vaccinated as part of a national "catch-up" programme were tested with three clinically validated HPV assays (2 DNA and 1 RNA). Overall HR-HPV and type specific positivity was assessed in total population and according to underlying cytology and compared to a demographically equivalent group of unvaccinated women. HPV prevalence was significantly lower in vaccinated women and was influenced by assay-type, reducing by 23-25% for the DNA based assays and 32% for the RNA assay (p 5 0.0008). All assays showed over 75% reduction of HPV16 and/or 18 (p < 0.0001) whereas the prevalence of non 16/18 HR-HPV was not significantly different in vaccinated vs unvaccinated women. In women with low grade abnormalities, the proportion associated with non 16/18 HR-HPV was significantly higher in vaccinated women (p < 0.0001). Clinically validated HPV assays are affected differentially when applied to vaccinated women, dependent on assay chemistry. The increased proportion of non HPV16/18 infections may have implications for clinical performance, consequently, longitudinal studies linking HPV status to disease outcomes in vaccinated women are warranted.HPV vaccination programmes have been implemented in several countries with success and their impact is now evident at the population level. Several ecological and direct linkage studies have shown significant associations between the reduction of vaccine-type HPV prevalence, associated disease and vaccination with both the bivalent and quadrivalent vaccines.1 Furthermore, there is encouraging evidence to suggest HPV-type cross-protective effect of the vaccines. 2,3 We are at a crucial time for cervical disease management. In addition to vaccination programmes, there is now international consensus that HPV testing should replace cytology as the primary screening modality. Primary screening with HPV testing is predicated on several randomised control trials which demonstrate its superior sensitivity for the detection of CIN21 over a longer time frame when compared to a single cytology screen. 4 The demand and requirement for HPV testing is evident in the increasing range of assays, with varied chemistry, platform and typing capabilities, that are considered clinically validated for use in cervical screening.
5Epidemiology and surveillance studies designed to assess HPV type specific prevalence in vaccinated populations, provide limited insight into how clinically validated assays will