• cervical cancer
• HIV
• HPV
• Mozambico

Background: Women infected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) display an higher rates of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical dysplasia than HIV seronegative women. Our study explore the relationship between HPV and HIV-1 in Mozambique to determine the prevalence of different HPV genotypes in a group of HIV-1-infected women and in a control group of HIV-uninfected women and to correlate these findings with cervical cytological results. Moreover the persistence of the HPV infections and the evolution of the lesions has been investigated.
Methods: A prospective, two arms, observational study involving HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected women has been performed. The enrolment period lasted from August 2007 to May 2010, whereas the observation period ended on February 2011.
Results: The study involved 331 participants: 247 HIV-infected and 84 HIV-uninfected women. HPV was found in 179/247 (72,5%) HIV-infected and in 45/84 (53,6%) HIV-uninfected subjects (p <0.001). The most frequent HPV genotypes identified in HIV-infected subjects were HPV: 58 (24,9 %, p<001), 16 (19,1 %) 61 (14,2 %,), 53 (13,7 %), 6 (11,3%) ; the HPV types identified in HIV-uninfected subjects were: 16 (17,7%) , 6 (16,1%), 66 (14,5%), 53 (11,3%), 18 (9,7%)
Conclusions: the HPV types identified are partially different from those more commonly identified in Western countries. It is necessary to improve screening for HPV and monitoring and treating programmes for SIL in HIV patients in Mozambique and in other sub-Saharan African countries