Objective: Persistent infection with human papillomavirus is the prerequisite for the development of cervical precancerous and cancerous lesions. The aim of this study was to determine the time-to-viral clearance in a population of human papillomavirus-infected Cameroonian women and to examine the possible predictors of viral persistence.
Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study based on a population of human papillomavirus-positive women having previously been recruited in a self-human papillomavirus-based cervical cancer screening campaign, who were invited for a control visit at 6 and 12 months. We determined human papillomavirus clearance using self-sampling (Self-HPV) and physician-sampling (Dr-HPV), which were analyzed with a point-of-care assay (GeneXpert® IV; Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA, USA). Logistic regression was performed to assess the relationship between sociodemographic and clinical characteristics with HPV clearance according to the two sampling techniques.
Results: A total of 187 participants were included in the study. At the 12 months follow-up, 79.5% (n = 104) and 65.3% (n = 86) had cleared their human papillomavirus infection according to Dr-HPV and self-HPV, respectively (p = 0.001). Only parity (>5 children) was statistically associated with viral persistence (p = 0.033). According to Dr-HPV, clearance of women treated with thermoablation at 12 months was of 84.1% versus 70.2% for non-treated women (p = 0.075).
Conclusion: The human papillomavirus clearing rates found in our study are close to those found in other studies worldwide. Parity was significantly associated with human papillomavirus persistence. Larger, prospective studies are needed to confirm our results.
Keywords: cervical cancer; clearance; human papillomavirus; screening; thermoablation.