One in four U.S. women have HPV
ATLANTA, Feb. 28 (UPI) — One in four U.S. females between the ages of 14 and 59 years may have the sexually transmitted infection human papillomavirus, or HPV.
Human papillomavirus is estimated to be the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, but there has been no data on the prevalence of HPV among women across a broad age range of the U.S. population.
Study leader Dr. Eileen F. Dunne of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and colleagues estimated the pre-vaccine prevalence of HPV in the United States by performing HPV DNA testing on 2,026 self-collected vaginal swabs among females age 14 to 59 years participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2004.
Of the 1,921 adequate specimens, 26.8 percent were positive for any HPV DNA. Using January 2004 population estimates and extrapolating this prevalence rate to the population, the authors estimate that approximately 24.9 million females in this age range have prevalent HPV infection.
The findings are published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
