| Summary: | Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-129). === Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer affecting women and in most developing countries it remains the leading cause of cancer deaths. In South Africa, more than 3 400 women succumb to the disease every year and 1 in 31 women develop cervical cancer. The causative agent for cervical cancer is the Human papillomavirus (HPV). High-risk (carcinogenic) HPV types have been linked with 99% of the incidences of cervical cancer. The most common types identified in almost 70% of cervical cancer cases worldwide are HPV 16 and 18. HPV infection is very common in young healthy women and most immunocompetent individuals can clear HPV infection. However, in immunosuppresed women, clearance by host immune system is impaired. In addition, multiple HPV infections are quite common in women with Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections. The objectives of this study were to identify HPV types in South African women who also had HIV infection, and secondarily, to determine if recombination of HPV genomes occurs. Determining the HPV types circulating in this country is important to enable identification of most common HPV types, in order to guide the development of vaccines against HPV infection. HPV genotyping was performed by the commercial Roche Linear Array HPV Genotyping Test.
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