Site-Specific Prevalence and Risk Factors of HPV Infection in Men Elucidated
PREVALENCE OF ANAL human papillomavirus (HPV) infection was 24.8% among a study population of 222 heterosexual men who confirmed that they had never engaged in male-male sexual intercourse. The study is scheduled to appear in The Journal of Infectious Diseases and can be viewed ahead of print at the journal's Web site.
Of those infected, 33.3% had an oncogenic HPV type and were thus at risk for development of anal cancer (the incidence of which, the study authors pointed out, has been increasing over the past 3 decades). The risk of anal HPV infection among the study participants correlated with the number of female sex partners they had had and the frequency of sex with those partners during the month preceding the study.
Another study, published in the March issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, showed that uncircumcised men were at higher risk for HPV infection than circumcised peers. The study analyzed specimens from 351 men (mean age, 29; 76.5% heterosexual) to identify site specific prevalence of HPV infection in outer male genitalia. The sites most frequently infected were the penile shaft (52%), scrotum (40%), and glans/corona (32%). Heterosexual behavior was more strongly correlated with infection of the shaft and scrotum than was homosexual behavior.
In uncircumcised men, prevalence of infection of the glans/corona was 46% and prevalence of infection of the foreskin was 44%, leading the researchers to conclude that circumcision may be somewhat protective against HPV infection. In addition to being at higher risk for HPV infection of the glans/corona (and being subject to infection of the foreskin), uncircumcised men also were more likely to be infected with oncogenic HPV genotypes and with multiple genotypes.
For more information, see Nyitray A, Nielson CM, Harris RB, et al. Prevalence of and risk factors for anal human papillomavirus infection in heterosexual men. J Infect Dis. 2008 Apr 21 [Epub ahead of print] and Hernandez BY, Wilkens LR, Zhu X, et al. Circumcision and human papillomavirus infection in men: a site-specific comparison. J Infect Dis. 2008;197:787-794.
