In 2012, Colombia launched human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program for girls ages 9 to 12, and in 2013, the target age was expanded to 9 to 17 years. Monitoring the changes of HPV infection prevalence among young women has been proposed as an endpoint for early assessment of HPV vaccination programs. However, the data on HPV prevalence in young ages are very limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of HPV infection and the distribution of genotypes in a group of nonvaccinated women ages 18 to 25 years old in three Colombian cities as baseline for the monitoring of the HPV national vaccination program. A total of 1,782 sexually active women were included. Cervical smear samples were collected to perform the Pap smear and HPV DNA detection using a Linear Array HPV assay. Of the 1,782 specimens analyzed, 60.3% were positive for any HPV type; 42.2% were positive for high-risk HPV (HR-HVP) types, and 44.4% for low-risk HPV (LR-HPV) types. Multiple and single infections were identified in 37.1% and 23.2% of samples, respectively. HR-HPV types -16, -52, and -51 were the most predominant with proportions of 11.3%, 7.92%, and 7.9%, correspondingly. The prevalence for HR-HPV 16/18 was 14.4%. HR-HPV prevalence in women with abnormal cytology (75.16%) was higher than in women with normal cytology (38.6%). In conclusion, a high prevalence of HR-HPV was observed among younger women. This HPV type-specific prevalence baseline may be used to monitor postvaccination longitudinal changes and to determine its impact on HPV-related disease incidence in Colombia population. .

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Background/Objectives.In Colombia, the HPV vaccine was launched in 2012 in the context of a school-based national vaccination program targeting girls aged 9-14 and offering catch up vaccination for girls aged 14-17. In this study, we evaluated the program's impact on type-specific HPV infection by comparing HPV cervical prevalence among vaccinated and non-vaccinated women.Methods. This is a comparative cross-sectional study conducted 5 years after the quadrivalent HPV vaccination implementation in a sentinel Colombian City. This study included young women (18-25 years old) who had been vaccinated in the catch-up group and were attending universities and technical institutions, and women who attended primary health care facilities for Pap-smear screening. The HPV prevalence of 1287 unvaccinated women was compared with the prevalence of 1986 vaccinated women.Results. The prevalence of HPV 16/18 infections was significantly lower in vaccinated compared to unvaccinated women (6.5% Vs 15.4%; p<0.001), whereas for HPV 6 /11 infections, a decrease of 63.7% in vaccinated women (1.02% Vs 2.81%) was observed. The adjusted effectiveness to HPV16/18 was 61.4%, 95% CI: 54.3-67.6%. However, the effectiveness against HPV16/18 was significantly higher among women vaccinated before Cancer Research.

Hypertension (arterial blood pressure ≥ 140/90 mmHg) is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, with the greatest burden of attributable deaths in Chile, having a national prevalence of 27.6%. In 2018, the implementation of HEARTS begun in primary health care centers of the Public Health System, with the aim of achieving increase in control rates, by raising the proportion of hypertensive individuals who meet blood pressure goals (< 140/90 mmHg for individuals 15–79 years old and of 150/90 mmHg for individuals 80 years and older), and thus contributing to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality associated with this condition. This is a descriptive study that follows average treatment and control rates from the Public Health System between 2017–2021 obtained from health centers statistics reports during HEARTS implementation. Treatment and control rates remained at 57% and 39% respectively between 2017-2019. Between 2020 and 2021, in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, treatment and control rates decreased very significantly, reaching 46% and 26%, respectively, in December 2021, even though the number of centers reporting the implementation of HEARTS increased from 227 to 387 in this same period. Prior to the pandemic, during the last quarter of 2019, a decrease in cardiovascular health controls was already observed as a result of social protests. In light of the results, the technical pillars of the HEARTS Initiative have an important role in helping to recover the population control rates reached in 2019 and increasing the speed to achieve better hypertension control rates.

<div>Abstract<p>In 2012, Colombia launched human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program for girls ages 9 to 12, and in 2013, the target age was expanded to 9 to 17 years. Monitoring the changes of HPV infection prevalence among young women has been proposed as an endpoint for early assessment of HPV vaccination programs. However, the data on HPV prevalence in young ages are very limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of HPV infection and the distribution of genotypes in a group of nonvaccinated women ages 18 to 25 years old in three Colombian cities as baseline for the monitoring of the HPV national vaccination program. A total of 1,782 sexually active women were included. Cervical smear samples were collected to perform the Pap smear and HPV DNA detection using a Linear Array HPV assay. Of the 1,782 specimens analyzed, 60.3% were positive for any HPV type; 42.2% were positive for high-risk HPV (HR-HVP) types, and 44.4% for low-risk HPV (LR-HPV) types. Multiple and single infections were identified in 37.1% and 23.2% of samples, respectively. HR-HPV types -16, -52, and -51 were the most predominant with proportions of 11.3%, 7.92%, and 7.9%, correspondingly. The prevalence for HR-HPV 16/18 was 14.4%. HR-HPV prevalence in women with abnormal cytology (75.16%) was higher than in women with normal cytology (38.6%). In conclusion, a high prevalence of HR-HPV was observed among younger women. This HPV type-specific prevalence baseline may be used to monitor postvaccination longitudinal changes and to determine its impact on HPV-related disease incidence in Colombia population. <i>Cancer Prev Res; 11(9); 581–92. ©2018 AACR</i>.</p></div>