Frequency of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Chlamydia trachomatis in Pregnant Women

A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in order to identify the frequency of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection, Chlamydia trachomatis, colposcopic and cytological findings in a group of 96 pregnant women (51 HIV positive and 45 HIV negative) from April 2006 to May 2007. All patients went through a standard questionnaire, followed by gynecological examination. Samples were collected for HPV survey and C. trachomatis by the Hybrid Capture II technique for oncotic colpocytology (Papanicolaou), followed by colposcopy. Data were stored and analyzed using Epi Info, version 6.04 and SPSS version 9.0. For statistical analysis the chi-square test were used with level of significance set at 5%. Among the HIV positive pregnant women 62.7% were positive for HPV and 17.6% were positive for C. trachomatis. In contrast, for HIV negative pregnant women 17.8% and 4.4% were positive for HPV and C. trachomatis, respectively. The Pap smear identified a larger amount of low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions in both groups, 21.6 % in HIV positive pregnant women and 13.3% in HIV negative pregnant women. The acetowhite epithelium was the most frequent colposcopy abnormality. In conclusion, the infection by HPV and C. trachomatis is more common in pregnant women infected with HIV, characterizing, thus, based on current knowledge, a population that is more susceptible to cervical cancer.