THE PREVALENCE OF HIGH RISK HPV STRAINS IN HIV POSITIVE PATIENTS - A PRELIMINARY STUDY

At the end of the 80s, Romania has faced one of the saddest public health problems: children infected with HIV as a result of medical procedures performed in hospitals. This situation has not been disclosed before 1989, and as a result the first cases of HIV infections in children in Romania have been identified this year. The aim of our study is to study the presence of the human papilloma virus infection, and analyze the prevalence of highly oncogenic HPV strains in this special group of patients. The samples were processed at a genetics laboratory for molecular testing. The molecular genetic testing enables high sensitivity detection of HPV infection and genotyping of different strains: of high risk, of undetermined risk and of low risk. From the total of 37 HIV positive patients between 20 and 24 years old, who became HIV infected parenterally during childhood, the results were abnormal in 16 cases, and in the rest of 21 cases, the results were negative. HPV genotyping revealed high risk strains in 8 cases (59 in 5 cases, and 31 in 3 cases), undetermined risk strains in 4 cases (53 in all cases), and low risk strains in the remaining 4 cases (11 in 3 cases and 4 in one case). The inclusion of HPV testing in cervical cancer screening of patients with iatrogenic HIV infection acquired during childhood needs further evaluation and validation. The potential benefit would be an increase in the detection rate, lengthening the testing intervals, decreasing the number of visits and unnecessary medical procedures, and the correct treatment of the detected lesions.