INVESTIGATION OF THE FREQUENCY, GENOTYPE DISTRIBUTION AND PROBABLE RISK FACTORS OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV) AMONG WOMENS ATTENDING TO FAMILY HEALTH CENTER

It is important to understand the frequency of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and the factors associated with HPV infections, to determine prevention, control and measures to be taken. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the HPV prevalence, genotype distribution and possible risk factors in women applying to the Family Health Center. Sexually active, clinically asymptomatic fifty women aged 30-65 who applied to Safranbolu Family Health Center between October 2018 and March 2019 were included in the study. In order to compare HPV-DNA positivity and socio-demographic characteristics, the education status, number of pregnancies, age of first sexual intercourse, presence of chronic disease, pap smear test and HPV vaccine status, etc. information was recorded and cervical swab samples were taken for detection of HPV-DNA. Viral DNA was isolated with the QIAamp® Viral DNA Kit (QIAGEN, Germany) according to the manufacturer's protocol. The presence of HPV-DNA was investigated using the MY09 / MY11 primers by the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method, positive samples were amplified using type-specific primers by PCR method and HPV typing was performed. HPV-DNA positivity was detected as 6% (3/50) in the study. Two samples were typed as HPV16; and one samples was typed as HPV31. It was observed that all HPV DNA positive samples were high risk oncogenic HPV types. When the probable risk factors are examined; It was observed that the first sexual intercourse age of patients was 16-21 years, and the number of pregnancies was ≥3 among the HPV-DNA positive women. A statistically significant relation was found with HPV-DNA positivity between the age of first sexual intercourse and the number of pregnancies (p <0.05). HPV-DNA positivity was not observed in any woman protected by a condom, which is considered to be the safest in terms of to protect sexualy transmission infections. It was observed that any women participating in the study knew the availability of HPV vaccine and did not get the HPV vaccine. It is necessary to perform studies showing the prevalence of HPV and common genotypes in a region at certain time intervals; it is thought that the results will guide cervical cancer prevention and vaccination.