Human Papillomaviruses and genital co-infections in gynaecological outpatients

Abstract

BackgroundHigh grade HPV infections and persistence are the strongest risk factors for cervical cancer. Nevertheless other genital microorganisms may be involved in the progression of HPV associated lesions.MethodsCervical samples were collected to search for human Papillomavirus (HPV), bacteria and yeast infections in gynaecologic outpatients. HPV typing was carried out by PCR and sequencing on cervical brush specimens. Chlamydia trachomatis was identified by strand displacement amplification (SDA) and the other microorganisms were detected by conventional methods.ResultsIn this cross-sectional study on 857 enrolled outpatients, statistical analyses revealed a significant association of HPV with C. trachomatis and Ureaplasma urealyticum (at high density) detection, whereas no correlation was found between HPV infection and bacterial vaginosis, Streptococcus agalactiae, yeasts, Trichomonas vaginalis and U. urealyticum. Mycoplasma hominis was isolated only in a few cases both in HPV positive and negative women and no patient was infected with Neisseria gonorrhoeae.ConclusionAlthough bacterial vaginosis was not significantly associated with HPV, it was more common among the HPV positive women. A significant association between HPV and C. trachomatis was found and interestingly also with U. urealyticum but only at a high colonization rate. These data suggest that it may be important to screen for the simultaneous presence of different microorganisms which may have synergistic pathological effects.

Influence of human papillomavirus infection on the vaginal microbiome of women with immunocompetency

“…There are other studies related to our findings regarding BV and HPV (4,27) . Zheng et al (28) found a higher prevalence of BV in an HPVpositive group compared to a control group, which is similar to our results.…”

“…The influences of bacterial vaginosis, trichomoniasis and candidiasis on the natural history of HPV have been well studied, but the results remain unclear. Some studies have reported an association between Candida and papillomavirus (3) , but most studies have found no relationship (1,4) . Trichomonas is also uncertainly associated with HPV; some studies have indicated a positive relationship (5,6) , while other studies have not (1,4) .…”

Tubal Damage, Infertility and Tubal Ectopic Pregnancy: Chlamydia trachomatis and Other Microbial Aetiologies

“…Microorganisms infecting the lower genital tract can be transported to the uterus and the Fallopian tubes either by (1) ascending to cause endometritis and subsequent salpingitis or (2) transport by the lymphatic system (Brook, 2002). Bacterial vaginosis has been associated with genital and obstetric infections, including PID (Catlin, 1992;Hay et al, 1992;Soper, 1994), particularly in the presence of other sexually transmitted infections (Hillier et al, 1996;Wiesenfeld et al, 2002) including human papilloma virus infections (Verteramo et al, 2009). Gaudoin et al, (Gaudoin et al, 1999) reported a strong association between bacterial vaginosis and tubal factor infertility and in a study by Wilson and colleagues (2002) it was concluded that women with tubal infertility were three times more likely to have bacterial vaginosis than women with male factor or unexplained infertility.…”

Risk factors of cervical intraepithelial lesion in Douala-Cameroon: Implications of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2, Chlamydia Trachomatis and Treponema Pallidum

“…Some previous epidemiological studies have produced the same results regarding association between cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and these two microbial infectious agents. However, others studies reported a positive association between C. trachomatis, T. pallidum and cervical lesion associated with HPV (25,26). Therefore, the effective role of these pathogens agents remain to be clarified.…”