
In a recent study published in The Lancet Global Health, researchers conducted a scientific review and meta-analysis to know the regional and global pooled, overall, and sort and age-specific prevalence estimates of genital human papillomavirus infection in males.
Study: Global and regional estimates of genital human papillomavirus prevalence amongst men: a scientific review and meta-analysis. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock
Background
Human papillomavirus is essentially the most prevalent type of sexually transmitted infection, with most sexually energetic individuals experiencing no less than one infection on account of genital HPV throughout the course of their lives. There are over 200 forms of sexually transmitted HPV, and of those, 12 are cancer-causing or oncogenic. While HPV infections are sometimes asymptomatic, they’re known to cause long-term morbidity and even mortality. In women, the oncogenic strains of HPV are linked to cervical cancer — probably the most prevalent types of cancer in women.
In men, HPV infections often manifest as anogenital warts and contribute to increased infection transmission rates. The sort 16 strain of HPV can also be linked to anal, penile, and oropharyngeal cancers. Nevertheless, while many epidemiological studies have examined the prevalence and consequences of HPV infections in women, the information on prevalence rates amongst men have been lacking. The few existing studies have focused on at-risk populations, resembling men living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and men who’ve sex with men, and an updated estimate of the prevalence of genital HPV infection amongst males is obligatory.
Concerning the study
In the current study, the researchers conducted an updated estimation of the regional and global type and age-specific and overall prevalence of genital HPV deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) amongst the final male population before the widespread implementation of the gender-neutral HPV vaccine. They carried out a scientific review of studies published between 1995 and 2022 that reported the prevalence of HPV infections amongst men above the age of 15, with no reported pathology related to HPV.
The included studies were also required to have conducted a polymerase chain response (PCR) or hybrid capture 2 to detect the HPV DNA from samples collected from anal or penile sites. Studies that focused solely on at-risk populations or circumcised men were excluded — the latter because circumcision is believed to act as a protective factor against HPV. Studies that only involved men vaccinated against HPV were also excluded, as were those who used semen or urine samples because these samples have low HPV detection sensitivity.
For the meta-analysis, only data on the mucosal α genus of HPV was extracted for the reason that viral strains that cause anogenital warts in men and the most important oncogenic forms of HPV are present on this genus. The random-effects model was used throughout the meta-analysis to estimate the regional and global prevalence for any style of HPV, high-risk HPV, and individual forms of HPV in an age-specific manner.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the income classifications based on the World Bank were used to calculate the regional pooled mean estimates for any individual and high-risk forms of HPV. The heterogeneity between studies was also examined using sensitivity analyses.
Results
The findings reported that the prevalence of HPV was high amongst men older than 15 years of age, with one amongst every three men world wide having no less than one incidence of genital HPV, while one amongst every five men globally has been infected with no less than one style of high-risk HPV.
The study also showed that no matter age, sexually energetic men were a genital HPV infection reservoir, and it’s imperative to incorporate men within the worldwide strategies for HPV prevention to scale back HPV-associated morbidity in men and eventually eliminate HPV-related diseases resembling cervical cancer.
Examination of the prevalence of individual HPV types revealed that type 16 was essentially the most dominant one, followed by type 6. Moreover, the age-specific evaluation indicated that the prevalence of HPV was high in young adult men and continued to be high through maturity. The prevalence was the very best amongst men between the ages of 25 and 29, after which it stabilized but remained high.
The implementation of the HPV vaccine amongst young women in various countries has begun to have an effect on reducing the prevalence of HPV infections on account of specific genotypes. The three vaccine formulations which have currently been approved for clinical use are the 2, 4, and nine-valent types, and all of them goal types 16 and 18 — the 2 high-risk types related to cancer.
Moreover, the regional pooled mean estimates indicated that the relative prevalence of HPV infections was lower amongst men and ladies in Asia, while HPV type 35 was consistently found to be prevalent amongst men and ladies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Conclusions
Overall, the findings highlighted the necessity to include men in the excellent worldwide HPV vaccination strategies being implemented for the reason that prevalence of HPV infections is high amongst men from young maturity and all through maturity. Regardless of age, sexually energetic men experience significant HPV-infection-related morbidity and are a reservoir for the virus.
Journal reference:
- Bruni, L., Albero, G., Rowley, J., Alemany, L., Arbyn, M., Giuliano, A. R., Markowitz, L. E., Broutet, N., & Taylor, M. (2023). Global and regional estimates of genital human papillomavirus prevalence amongst men: a scientific review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Global Health, 11(9), e1345–e1362. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214109X(23)003054, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214109X23003054