Human papillomavirus infection among women attending family planning clinic in Nigeria: prevalence, correlates, and co-infection with Chlamydia trachomatis

Infection with high-risk genotypes of human papillomavirus (HPV) is considered the main cause of invasive cervical. A number of epidemiologic studies have suggested that HPV and Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) play a synergistic role in the etiology of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and subsequent cervical cancer. The current study aimed to evaluate the HPV prevalence and the risk factors for co-infection with CT among women attending family planning clinic in Nigeria. Following enrolment, 90 patients were screened for IgG antibodies to virus-like proteins of HPV types 6, 8, 16, and 18. CT seropositivity was tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of IgG and IgM antibodies. The prevalence of HPV IgG was 20%. Seropositivity for CT IgM was 77.8% while the IgG was 0%. A total of 10 women (11.1%) were seropositive for both CT IgM and HPV IgG antibodies. Seropositivity for HPV IgG was significantly associated with age at marriage (P 0.001), current Chlamydia infection (P 0.011), and number of children (P 0.025), while seropositivty for HPV IgG and Chlamydia trahomatis IgM was significantly associated with age at coitarche (P 0.028), number of life sex partners (P 0.033), and history of multiple sexual partners (P 0.002).