An epidemiological survey of HPV infection among women in Southern Hebei, China

To investigate the genotypes and distribution patterns of human papillomavirus (HPV) infections among women in southern Hebei, China. Cervical specimens were collected from female clinical patients (including both outpatients and inpatients) and health examination participants at Handan Central Hospital between September 2022 and August 2025. HPV genotyping was performed using a real-time fluorescent PCR method with the HybriBio (Chaozhou, China) 23-type HPV nucleic acid genotyping kit (fluorescent PCR), which detects 23 HPV genotypes (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68, 6, 11, 42, 43, 44, 53, 66, 73, 81, 82). The study analyzed the positivity rates of each genotype, the proportion and genotype distribution among different age groups and cervical diseases. Among 41,045 cervical samples, the HPV positivity rate was 24.20%. The top three most prevalent genotypes were 52, 16, and 58, respectively. The detection rate of high-risk HPV (hrHPV) was 20.22%, while that of low-risk HPV (lrHPV) was 7.40%. The positivity rates were highest among women aged <20 (40.27%), >60 (29.30%), and 51–60 years (28.00%), monotypic infections were predominant across all age groups, and the positivity rates were significantly higher among patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancer compared to the general population. This study on HPV genotype distribution among women in the southern Hebei region provides strong evidence for establishing a cervical cancer screening and prevention system in the area, as well as valuable epidemiological data for the development and application of HPV vaccines.