Human papillomavirus infection among women attending health facilities in the Kingdom of Bahrain

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the occurrence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and the associated risk factors in Bahrain's female population.

METHODS: This study was carried out between March to December 2004, which includes cervical scrapings for Pap smear and HPV-DNA testing using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, obtained from 100 women attending the Gynecology Clinic at Salmaniya Medical Center and Sheikh Sabah Health Center in the Kingdom of Bahrain. We distributed questionnaires that include the sociodemographic data as well as information on risk factors such as smoking, parity, and the contraceptive used.

RESULTS: Eleven women (11%) with normal cytology were HPV-positive. The RFLP analysis detected HPV-types 16, 18, 45, 62 and 53. Positive women were significantly older (43.3 ± 10.1 years) than negatives (36.5 ± 9.9 years; p=0.04), however, there was no difference in age of first sexual contact (positive: 18.1 ± 5.7 years versus negative: 20.6 ± 4.4 years). Polygamy, smoking and hormonal contraception was not identified as risk factors, but positive women showed higher parity.

CONCLUSION: In this study on HPV infection in Bahrain, the 11% positivity with high risk HPV types, in the presence of normal cytology suggests that in addition to the cervical cancer screening program, offer of HPV testing deserves consideration.