Molecular detection of human papillomavirus from abnormal cervical cytology of women attending a tertiary health facility in Ido-ekiti, southwest Nigeria

BACKGROUND. Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been implicated as one of the principal causes of cervical cancer, which is the second highest cause of cancer deaths among Nigerian women. OBJECTIVE. This study was aimed at determining the presence of HPV DNA in abnormal cervical cytology of a group of women who were screened using Papanicolaou staining technique. METHODOLOGY. A total of 200 women attending the Obstetrics and Gynaecology clinic of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti, were screened by means of conventional Pap smear screening, while positive samples underwent molecular analyses by means of DNA isolation techniques and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULT. Results revealed that 14 (7%) of the subjects were positive for abnormal cytology. Abnormalities found among the subjects included: low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), which constituted 50% of the total abnormal smears, high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) and atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS), which were 28.6% and 21.4%, respectively. Molecular analyses showed that all the samples from abnormal cervical cytology subjected to HPV DNA extraction and gene amplification contained HPV DNA. CONCLUSIONS. The high prevalence of HPV DNA in abnormal cytology gives credence to the fact that the presence of HPV is a critical indicator of the development of cervical cancer. Thus more effort should be put into vaccine production and distribution in order to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer in Nigeria.