Background:Epidemiologic studies have clearly shown that infection with high-risk types of Human Papillomavirus (HPV), types 16 and 18 causes most cervical pre-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions. HPV 16 being common genotype found in general population but it still remains among the most prevalent individual type in cervical neoplasias. Since HPV testing is becoming a more useful and important tool for cervical cancer screening in the past few years, this study was conducted to detect the HPV

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... ection rate among healthy women or non-cervical cancer patients and to identify the HPV genotype in HPV-positive samples. Methods: In this study we performed nested PCR using primers targeting the L1 gene of HPV against DNA extracted from cervical swabs obtained from non-cervical cancer women or healthy women attending regular Pap Smear clinics. To ensure the validity of the results, the PCR experiments were repeated at least 3 times for each sample, and rigorous controls were incorporated. The HPV types from each PCR positive sample were identified by DNA sequencing. All patients who participated in this study were also given self-administered, standardized questionnaire regarding their lifestyle and sexual activity. Result: 60 out of 70 (85.7%) samples were positive for HPV infections. The most common HPV DNA type found was type 16 (60%), followed by 18 (7.1%), 33 (2.8%), 58 (1.4%) and 87 (1.4%). HPV 16,18 and 58 are high-risks types associated with development of cervical cancer; whereas HPV type 87 is thought to have low-to intermediate-risk. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that there is a high prevalence of HPV infection among the women studied; whereby HPV type 16 was the most common genotype among the healthy female population in Southern Selangor. This underscores the importance of educating the public regarding the significance of regular Pap smear screening and the benefits of preventive immunization with HPV vaccine.