Cervical cancer screening in HIV positive patients. A new face for an old tragedy?

S. Anei, C. Chiriac, V. Bacirea, L. Puscasiu

Abstract: In the late 1980s Romania was confronted with one of the most painful public health problems of the time, but the drama was not publicly disclosed earlier than 1989s: children who had been infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in hospitals during medical procedures. About 21 years after this event, this generation has reached reproductive age and a new tragedy is about to occur on the foundations of the old one. The purpose of our work was to assess the prevalence of dysplastic lesions of the cervix in HIV positive patients in order to propose a coherent and evidence based strategy of early detection, treatment and follow-up in this particular group of patients. We enrolled a total of 37 HIV positive patients who were investigated by performing Pap cytological examination. All the patients in the study were iatrogenic infected with HIV during childhood. The results were then compared with those of 237 healthy patients of the same age group (control group) undergoing smear examinations at the same time and same cytology laboratory. There was no statistical significant difference between HIV positive patients and normal control group regarding abnormal Pap test in the same age group. Our data showed no differences regarding abnormal Pap smears between the two analyzed groups, although many other studies suggested that women living with HIV infection have a much higher risk of precancerous dysplastic lesions of the cervix than do HIV-uninfected women. These findings could open new open questions for many other further debate studies.
Keywords: dysplastic, cervix, cytology, human immunodeficiency virus.