Prevalence of human papillomavirus antibodies in young female subjects in England

Abstract

Sera from 1483 female subjects in England aged 10 -29 years were tested. The age-standardised seroprevalence was 10.7% (95% confidence intervals 9.0 -12.3) for human papillomavirus (HPV) 6, 2.7% (1.8 -3.6) for HPV 11, 11.9% (10.2 -13.6) for HPV 16, 4.7% (3.5 -5.8) for HPV 18, Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) types identified as 'high-risk' is a pre-requisite for developing cervical cancer (Munoz et al, 2003). HPV types 16 and 18 are associated with 70% of cervical cancers worldwide (Munoz et al, 2003), while HPV types 6 and 11, although not 'high-risk', are associated with over 90% of cases of anogenital warts (von Krogh et al, 2001). Two prophylactic vaccines against HPV (a bivalent vaccine against types 16 and 18, and a quadrivalent vaccine that also includes types 6 and 11) have been shown in clinical trials to reduce persistent HPV infection and associated disease by over 90% in up to 5 years of follow-up (Harper et al, 2004;Villa et al, 2006).Epidemiological knowledge of HPV infection in the UK relies heavily on prevalence studies of HPV DNA in the cervical epithelium of women undergoing cervical sampling (Woodman et al, 2001;Kitchener et al, 2006) and usually relates to female subjects known to be sexually active. These studies indicate the prevalence of current infection, as most HPV infections are transient and become DNA negative within 2 years (Moscicki et al, 2006). In individuals who mount a detectable humoral immune response, HPV type-specific serum antibodies are an indicator of past exposure. Testing of blood samples also offers the opportunity to survey different populations.Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) utilising viruslike particles have been used successfully for seroprevalence studies in several countries including the USA (Stone et al, 2002) and Sweden (af Geijersstam et al, 1999). We report on the first population-based study of HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18 seroprevalence in England, in 10-to 29-year-old female subjects -the likely target age range for vaccination, but an age range in which little is known about infection rates. MATERIALS AND METHODSSerum specimens were obtained from the Health Protection Agency Sero-Epidemiology Unit collection, consisting of unlinked residual sera submitted to laboratories in England for routine microbiological or biochemical investigations. Sera from immunocompromised individuals and repeat sera from the same individuals were excluded (Osborne et al, 2000).Sera were selected from 1483 women aged 10 -29 years, chosen as most important for informing the design of HPV vaccination programmes in the UK. Sera came from 11 laboratories in England that collected samples in 2002 -2004. About 90 samples were selected for each single year of age in the range 10 -19 years, and about 60 samples for each of the ages 20 -29 years. Samples were tested for specific neutralising antibodies to HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18 by Merck and Co Inc., using a multiplexed competitive Luminex s assay with antibody levels reported in milli-Merck units per millilitre (mMu ml À1 ...

Dynamics of human papillomavirus serology in women followed up for 36 months after pregnancy

“…There is recent evidence that ELISA is a lesssensitive method than the bead-based multiplex assay used in our study (Waterboer et al, 2005). In general, we can conclude that the baseline seroprevalence figures for all HPV types in our study were higher than reported previously (Lehtinen et al, 2006;Rama et al, 2006;Jit et al, 2007;Skjeldestad et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2008). When the more stringent (400 MFI) cut-off value for L1 antibodies was used, seroprevalence declined by [15][16][17][18][19][20]in particular,seroprevalence of HPV 16 (20 %) and HPV 18 (8 %) was in line with earlier reports (Viscidi et al, 1997;af Geijersstam et al, 1998;Stone et al, 2002).…”

Seroprevalence of Antibodies against Serogroup C Meningococci in England in the Postvaccination Era

“…This collection has been widely used in epidemiologic studies (see references 6,11,20,31,33, and 34 for examples). One disadvantage of this collection is that in order to preserve anonymity, few details regarding the individuals from whom the sera were collected are available.…”

Seroprevalence of Antibodies against Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Types 16 and 18 in Four Continents: the International Agency for Research on Cancer HPV Prevalence Surveys

“…The vast majority of HPV seroprevalence studies have been carried out in women from high-resource countries (3,6,(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). Few studies have focused on low-resource areas, such as Central and South America (7,(15)(16)(17), Asia (5,18) or Africa (19), where the highest HPV DNA prevalence in the world can be found, notably among middleaged women (20).…”