Human papillomavirus prevalence in pregnant women living with human immunodeficiency virus infection: a scoping review of the literature

Abstract

Objectives: Studies already pointed out the increased risk of human papillomavirus (HPV) positivity and the implied risk of cervical dysplasia and even cervical carcinoma in pregnant women with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Nevertheless, due to less data there is still no standardised and expanded screening for this high-risk group.

Content: Two online databases (PubMed, EMBASE) were used to identify eligible studies. Results are shown in percentages. Wherever useful the arithmetic mean was calculated.

Summary: Seven studies were included. Pregnant WLWH showed HPV prevalence between 34 and 98.4 %. Different sensitivity and specificity among PCR methods for HPV detection could be a reason for the large range concerning HPV prevalence. Risk factors like Age, Smoking, Sexuality, HIV status and education level should always be taken into account. Association between HPV prevalence and level of CD4 cells or HIV virus load was seen. In which way use of Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) could decries the risk for HPV infections is still discussed. When cytology was performed only few high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) were found.

Outlook: Standardisation and expansion of preventive screening for cervical dysplasia and carcinoma for pregnant WLWH is necessary. Then better comparability of the data will also be achieved.

Keywords: HIV; HPV; pregnancy; scoping review.