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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 2001, p. 4344-4348, Vol. 39, No. 12
Laboratoire de Virologie Moléculaire,
INSERM EMI-U 00-10 Protéases et Vectorisation, Faculté de
Pharmacie, 37200 Tours, France1;
Servei d'Epidemiologia i Registre del Cancer, Institut Catala
d'Oncologia, Barcelona,2 Centre
d'Atenció a la Dona, Cornella,3 and
Unidad de Dermatologia, Hospital Monte Naranco,
Oviedo,4 Spain; Department of Pathology,
University Hospital Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands5; and Roche Molecular
Systems, Alameda, California6
Received 23 April 2001/Returned for modification 1 July
2001/Accepted 8 October 2001
Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is sexually
transmitted. The aim of the study was to characterize serological responses to HPV types 16, 18, 31, and 58 by exploring type-specific virus-like particles (VLPs) in two groups of women with very distinct sexual behaviors. Anti-VLP antibodies for types 16, 18, 31, and 58 and
HPV DNA in cervical cells were investigated with 177 prostitutes and
283 age-matched controls from the female general population in Spain.
Anti-VLP positivity increased with number of lifetime sexual partners
in women from the general population, and no seroresponse was found in
virgins. However, in prostitutes HPV infection was characterized by
higher multireactivity to three or four VLPs (25%) than the general
population (3%) and by a more frequent antibody response to HPV-58
than in the general population. About 75% of the women seropositive
for type 58 had been born in a Latin American country. Seroprevalence
of HPV and cervical HPV DNA in prostitutes were 14 and 10 times higher
than observed in women in the general population (prevalence odds ratio
[POR] of HPV seropositivity, 14.04 [95%; CI = 8.4 to 23.6]
and POR for HPV DNA, 10.4 [95% CI = 3.9 to 27.6). Our results
indicate that prostitutes are at an increased risk of oncogenic HPV
infections, and they confirm the validity of anti-VLPs as markers of
present or past HPV infection, that the number of sexual partners is
the major determinant in acquisition of oncogenic HPV, and that
anti-VLPs could be used as a marker of repeated infection in prostitutes.
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.12.4344-4348.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Prevalence of Anti-Human Papillomavirus Type 16, 18, 31, and 58 Virus-Like Particles in Women in the General
Population and in Prostitutes

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratoire de
Virologie Moléculaire, Faculté des Sciences
Pharmaceutiques, 31 Ave. Monge, 37200 Tours, France. Phone: 33 2 47 36 72 56. Fax: 33 2 47 36 71 88. E-mail: coursaget{at}univ-tours.fr.
Deceased.
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