Men who have sex with men (MSM), especially HIV-infected, have an increased risk of anal intraepithelial neoplasia, anal human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, and anal cancer associated to HPV infection. Anal cytology screening is yet to be implemented as a routine in Uruguay and there's no previous data of anal HPV infection prevalence in MSM.
This work aims to provide for the first time in Uruguay epidemiological data about the prevalence of HPV in the anal canal of MSM HIV and non HIV infected, the different circulating genotypes and their association with anal lesions, in order to be able to implement health prevention strategies.
Our cross-sectional study is been conducted since 2015. The population studied included non-HPV-vaccinated MSM without HPV associated lesions previously diagnosed.
Were included 93 patients, the molecular diagnosis of HPV (detection was carried out by PCR) was positive in 54 patients (45 HIV infected), negative in 25 patients and unrepresentative in 14. The anal inspection was abnormal in 26 patients. 54 patients had a pathological cytology (Pap cytology technique), 27 (29.3%) ASCUS, 24 (25.8%) LSIL, 3 (3.2%) HSIL, 26 (28.0%) had normal cytology. HPV positive samples were genotyped (PCR-RFLP), were detected genotypes: 6 (29,2%), 11 (33,3%), 16 (12,5%), 18 (8.3%) and multiples genotypes (16.4%).
A high prevalence of HPV infection and pathological anal cytology was found in the population studied, especially in HIV infected. This results will help to develop national strategies of prevention through the implementation of screening.
