Research Article Persistence or Clearance of Human Papillomavirus Infections in Women in Ouro Preto, Brazil

Copyright © 2013 P. M. Miranda et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Persistent high-risk (HR) human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is necessary for development of precursor lesions and cervical cancer. We investigate persistence and clearance of HPV infections and cofactors in unvaccinated women. Cervical samples of 569 women (18–75 years), received for routine evaluation in the Health Department of Ouro Preto, Brazil, were collected and subjected to PCR (MY09/11 or GP5+/6+ primers), followed by RFLP or sequencing. All womenwere interviewed to collect sociodemographi