Introduction: Genital infections by human papillomavirus (HPV) are the most prevalent sexually transmitted viral diseases worldwide. Although the natural history of cervical cancer is better understood, there are still scarce information regarding the etiology of penile cancer, and the natural history of HPV infection in men is not yet fully elucidated. Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of HPV infection in penile samples, from a clinically asymptomatic male population. Methods: A total of 550 samples were collected between January 2011 and July 2014 in different institutions in the State of Rio de Janeiro, including a dermatology clinic and a metallurgical company. The samples were collected from the anatomical regions of the glans and balanopreputial sulcus. HPV identification was made through the generic and type-specific Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), and Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) techniques. Results: An overall prevalence of HPV infection was observed in 21.8% (120 subjects). The most prevalent HPV type was HPV 6 (35%), followed by HPV 16 (20.8%), HPV 11 (19.1%), HPV 31 (6.7%), HPV 33 (6.7%), HPV 45 (8.3%) and HPV 58 (3.3%). Hence, infection was associated with low-risk oncogenic types in 54.1% of the studied individuals, while high-risk oncogenic types were detected in 45.9% of them. The age of the studied subjects ranged from 18 to 65 years with a mean age of 28.4 years. Conclusion: According to our findings, we can infer that the prevalence of HPV infection among asymptomatic male population was considerably lower than the described in the literature, although in agreement with results reported in some recently published studies. We believe that the results may contribute to understand the features of circulation of HPV in male population, in order to evaluate risk-benefits and strategies of disease prevention.

Introduction: Studies concerning human papillomavirus natural history have been focused on cervical infection and disease, but have scarcely described anal infections, especially in clinically health population. Hence, knowledge on HPV natural history is recently being investigated although viral maintenance in hosts is poorly understood. Detection on diverse, extragenital sites may add in the elucidation of infection-dissemination-reinfection cycle reported on the human genital tract. Besides that, it is evident the importance of an adequate screening of the viruses for appropriate diagnosis, mainly in the first steps of the neoplasia in order to provide a better prognosis. Our results pointed out HPV prevalence rates in genital lesions of 87% (80/92) and of 47.8% (44/92) for anal samples. We pointed out that this high prevalence is due to clinically detected lesions, that contributes to the risk of extragenital infections, mainly by host auto-inoculation. Despite the difference in samples size, we did not find statistical relevant differences related with genera (men 85.1% and women 92%; p>0.05), corroborating the idea of no tropism differences by sex. Nevertheless, for anal samples, statistically significant differences were found between men and women (68% of anal HPV infection in women against 40.3% in men (p=0.038). These results reveal that female anal infections are more frequent than in men, suggesting that infection by autoinoculation occurs and can render this site as an HPV reservoir, occasionally becoming clinical lesions. Hormonal profile, sexual behavior and differences among body sites can explain these differences here described. Our study is a preliminary evaluation of HPV infection in human multiple sites. Keywords: papillomavirus infections; polymerase chain reaction; anus. RESUMO Introdução:Muitos estudos sobre a história natural do papilomavírus humano (HPV) têm focado nas infecções cervicais, mas pouco tem se falado sobre infecções anais em pacientes assintomáticos. Assim, a história natural do HPV ainda está em construção e os mecanismos de manutenção dele no organismo hospedeiro são pouco compreendidos. Entendemos que a detecção do vírus em sítios extragenitais poderá ajudar na compreensão da cadeia de infecção-disseminação-reinfecção pelo HPV no trato genital humano. Além disso, é evidente a importância de um rastreio adequado do vírus diante de diagnósticos clínicos, principalmente no período inicial da lesão, provendo, assim, um melhor prognóstico. Nossos resultados apontaram uma prevalência da infecção por HPV em lesões genitais de 87% (80/92) e nas amostras anais tal prevalência foi de 47,8% (44/92). Ressaltamos que nossa prevalência foi alta, mas estudamos indivíduos com lesões genitais clinicamente detectadas, aumentando, assim, o risco de infecção em outros sítios e confirmando a ocorrência da presença do HPV no hospedeiro, provavelmente decorrente de autoinoculação. Apesar da diferença entre o número de indivíduos dos sexos feminino e masculino em nosso estudo, não enco...