Development of New Human Papillomavirus Vaccines

Abstract

Over the past 35 years, we have observed a remarkable and important increase in the prevalence of HPV infection, both in its clinical forms and appearance of its condyloma acuminate. Colposcopic exploration of this area would be required, with special focus at the regions of introitus and inter-labial folds. Both genital and anal examinations (Guerra-Tapia et al., 2009) are necessary to determine the sub-clinical expression of HPV identified by cytological changes, colposcopy, and/or vulvoscopy and vaginoscopy. Clinical forms of HPV infections generally caused by LR-HPV strains (6, 11) tend to be benign. Sub-clinical forms include benign and pre-malignant lesions, and are generally caused by HR-HPV strains (16 and 18) (Fig. 1) (Rodriguez-Cerdeira C et al., 2008a, 2008b, , 2009a; Walboomers et al., 1999). In a recent study by the International Agency for Cancer Research (IACR) group in 13 areas in 11 countries including Spain, a high prevalence of HPV was seen in both Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa (International Agency for Research on Cancer [IARC], 1995; Munoz et al., 2003). Furthermore, it was observed that HPV-16 infection was more frequent among European women. We observed the same genotype in a study involving 436 women aged between 16 and 80 years. Three samples from the cervix and vagina of each patient were cytologically examined (Rodriguez-Cerdeira C et al., 2009b).