Prevalence and nonsexual transmission of human papilloma virus (HPV) in the adolescence girls from rural area of Maharashtra state, India

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To find out the prevalence of human papilloma virus (HPV) in adolescent girls and to access the nonsexual transmission of HPV from their mother by using the same old cloth used by their mother. METHOD: Menstrual pads were collected from the women of age group years to find out the presence of HPV and whether it can be used as a cervical cancer screening tool. The results of the said study have been published in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention. During this study, menstrual pads of the daughters of participating women were collected to see the nonsexual transmission of HPV. After conducting the health education and obtaining the informed consent, we interviewed 57 mothers (age group 30–50, married, sexually active) and daughters [age group 12–18, unmarried (not exposed to sex)] from the rural area of Pune district of Maharashtra state, India. The menstrual pads were collected and transported to Mumbai for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. HPV testing was carried out by PCR. RESULTS: Out of 57, 28 (49%) daughters and 23 (40.4%) mothers provided menstrual pad. Out of 23 mothers, one was HPV positive [4.3% 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.2–23.0] and out of 28 girls, 3 (10.7% 95% CI 2.0–33.0) were HPV positive. The daughter, whose mother was HPV positive, had negative result for HPV. CONCLUSION: The HPV prevalence in adolescence girls was 10.7%. There may be other nonsexual medium that might have caused HPV in adolescence girls, which needs further research.