Human papillomavirus genotype distribution in Ethiopia: an updated systematic review

Cervical cancer is caused by infection with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HR-HPVs). It is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in Ethiopia and globally. To develop efficient vaccination and HPV-based cervical cancer screening approaches, data on genotype distribution of HPVs is crucial. Hence, the study was aimed to review HPV genotype distribution in Ethiopia.

Research articles were systematically searched using comprehensive search strings from PubMed/Medline and SCOPUS. Besides, Google Scholar was searched manually for grey literature. The last search was conducted on 18 August 2021. The first two authors independently appraised the studies for scientific quality and extracted the data using Excel sheet. The pooled HPV genotype distribution was presented with descriptive statistics.

We have included ten studies that were reported from different parts of the country during 2005 and 2019. These studies included 3633 women presented with different kinds of cervical abnormalities, from whom 29 different HPV genotypes with a sum of 1926 sequences were reported. The proportion of high-risk, possible/probable high-risk and low-risk HPVs were at 1493 (77.5%), 182 (9.4%) and 195 (10.1%), respectively. Of the reported genotypes, the top five were HPV 16 (37.3%; 95% CI 35.2.1–39.5%), HPV 52 (6.8%; 95% CI 5.8–8.0%), HPV 35 (4.8%; 95% CI 3.9–5.8%), HPV 18 (4.4%; 95% CI 3.5–5.3%) and HPV 56 (3.9%: 95% CI 3.1–4.9%). Some of other HR-HPV groups include HPV 31 (3.8%), HPV 45 (3.5%), HPV 58 (3.1%), HPV 59(2.3%), and HPV 68 (2.3%). Among the high-risk types, the combined prevalence of HPV 16/18 was at 53.7% (95% CI 51.2–56.3%). HPV 11 (2.7%: 95% CI 2.1–3.5%), HPV 42 (2.1%: 95% CI 1.5–2.8%) and HPV 6 (2.1%: 95% CI 1.4–2.7%) were the most common low-risk HPV types.

We noted that the proportion of HR-HPV types was higher and HPV 16 in particular, but also HPV 52, HPV 35 and HPV 18, warrant special attention in Ethiopian’s vaccination and HPV based cervical screening program. Additional data from other parts of the country where there is no previous HPV genotype report are needed to better map the national HPV genotypes distribution of Ethiopia.