High Risk HPV Detected in Oral Cavity of Children in a Set Population of Karachi

Aims: The study was designed to determine the frequency of HPV in school going children and also find out cytopathological changes in the oral mucosa resulting from HPV infection.

Study Design: Cross sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Samples of oral rinse were collected from 300 healthy school going children (aged 5-18 years) during the period of March 2014 to June 2014 from two school campuses of Karachi (South) Pakistan.

Methodology: Samples were divided into six ethnic groups according to mother tongue, including: Balochi, Pashto, Punjabi, Sindhi, Siraiki, and Urdu speaking. HPV was investigated using general primers (GP/5+ GP/6+) and HPV genotype kit (Genei eight high risk strains detection kit). For exfoliated cytology study slides were prepared and H&E staining was done to find out histopathological changes associated with HPV.

Results: Twenty three out of 300 (n=23/300) samples were positive representing 7.70% of the total screened. The 23 HPV positive samples included Balochi 4.3%, Pashto 13.0%, Punjabi 52.2%, Sindhi 0.0%, Siraiki 8.7%, and Urdu speaking 21.73% subjects. Further screening of high risk oncogenic genotype with Genei HPV kit yielded 6 (2%) positive samples, who were all females. None of slides was positive for any cytopathological changes.

Conclusion: The frequency of HPV was found 7.7% in school going children. The association between HPV infection, histological variables and tobacco use was not found.