EARLY NATURAL HISTORY OF INCIDENT TYPE-SPECIFIC HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS INFECTIONS IN NEWLY SEXUALLY ACTIVE YOUNG WOMEN

BACKGROUND—Characterizing short-term detection patterns of young women’s incident alpha-genus human papillomavirus (HPV) infections may further understanding of HPV transmission. METHODS—Between 2000–2007, we followed 18–22 year old female university students with triannual HPV DNA and Papanicolau testing. Using Kaplan-Meier methods, we estimated: duration of detectable, type-specific incident infections; time to re-detection (among infections that became undetectable); and time to cervical lesion development after incident infection. We evaluated risk factors for short-term persistent versus transient infection with logistic regression. RESULTS—303 incident type-specific infections were detected in 85 sexually active women. Median time to first negative test after incident infection was 9.4 (95%CI:7.8–11.2) months; 90.6 % of infections became undetectable within two years. 19.4 % of infections that became undetectable were re-detected within one year. Cervical lesions were common, and 60 % were positive for multiple HPV types in concurrent cervical swabs. Incident HPV detection in the cervix only (versus the vulva/vagina only or both sites) was associated with short-term transience