Anal HPV infection common in HIV positive and high-risk HIV negative women

17 March 2001. Related: Women's health.

A new report in the Journal of Infectious Diseases (2001;183:383-391) indicates that anal human papillomavirus (HPV) appears to be common in HIV positive and HIV negative women who are at high-risk for infection.

Researchers from the University of California at San Francisco studied 251 HIV positive women and 68 women who had similar risk factors but were not infected with HIV. Approximately three-quarters of the women with HIV and two-fifths of the HIV negative women had anal HPV DNA. The researchers also discovered that in a subset of 200 women for whom cervical HPV information was also available, anal HPV was much more common.

Source: CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update