[Table of Contents]

Volume: 26S6 - October 2000

1998/1999 Canadian Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Surveillance Report

Human Papillomavirus (HPV)

Human papillomavirus (HPV) has never been nationally notifiable in Canada, even though its link with cervical cancer has been well established. Eighty-five strains of HPV have now been typed and more are anticipated with the newly developed primer systems, which have been shown to give better amplification of HPV genotypes.

Recommendations from the HPV Infections and Cervical Cancer 2000 Conference⁽⁶⁾, held in February 2000, of which Health Canada was a sponsor, include using liquid-based cytology for Pap smear testing in order to improve the sensitivity of this test. Another recommendation involves the use of HPV DNA testing as a screening tool in selected situations. Health Canada is studying all the recommendations put forward at that Conference and has established an inter-branch HPV Working Group.

Because of the fluctuating ability of the virus to clear itself from the patient, HPV incidence is extremely difficult to determine. Prevalence studies have found that some populations have a higher risk of HPV infection than others. A study at McGill University in Montreal found that the overall HPV prevalence was 22% in a cohort of 489 female students⁽⁷⁾. In a study in Manitoba, 33% of HIV-infected women from an ethnically mixed, predominantly low-income area were found to have some type of HPV⁽⁸⁾. Health Canada has made inroads into establishing the prevalence of the virus in certain populations in Canada by funding prevalence studies in the north and in Ontario, with plans to expand these to other regions in the future.

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