Condyloma acuminatum (CA) is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. It is important to study the prevalence and distribution of HPV genotypes before implementing the HPV vaccination program. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiological characteristics of CA cases and the distribution of HPV genotypes in Shandong Province, China. One-to-one questionnaire surveys were conducted on all patients diagnosed with CA in sentinel hospitals from Shandong Province, China. HPV genotypes were determined using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-reverse dot blot hybridization method. The study enrolled 1185 patients (870 males and 315 females) and found that CA patients are mainly males and sexually active people between the ages of 20 and 40. Recurrence occurred in 34.7% patients. Among the 880 CA patients who underwent HPV typing, the HPV test positivity rate was 91.4%. In these cases, low-risk (LR) HPV infection was predominant, with an infection rate of 91.3%, while high-risk (HR) HPV genotypes were found in 53.5% patients. The most frequent HPV genotypes encountered were HPV6 (57.8%), HPV11 (37.2%), HPV16 (13.7%), and HPV42 (10.3%). HPV6 and/or HPV11 are the main infections in all patients, and more than half of the patients are coinfected with HR-HPV. However, unlike other regions, HPV42 has a higher prevalence rate among CA patients in Shandong Province and is a nonvaccine HPV genotype. Therefore, regular HPV typing helps to understand the characteristics of specific genotypes and the choice of the best type for vaccine coverage.
Keywords: Condyloma acuminatum; HPV genotypes; epidemiology; human papillomavirus.