Sexually Transmitted Infections and Association with High-Risk Human Papillomavirus Among Ethiopian Women attending cervical cancer screening

Introduction: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to be a major public health concern and threat on a global scale. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and association of STIs coinfection with hrHPV and histological findings in a cohort of women attending cervical cancer screening with self-sampling. Method: This study was based on a cohort of 885 reproductive-aged women was attending cervical cancer screening at public prenatal care clinics in Adama, Ethiopia. The detection was performed by using the Allplex™ STI-EA real-time multiplex kit with the CFX96™ thermal cycler (Bio-Rad, CA, USA). The Seegene Anyplex II HPV HR test kit was used for the simultaneously detection of 14 hrHPV genotypes. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were made to test the association between the variables. Result: Of all the study participants, 568 (64.2%) had at least one sexually transmitted microorganism (95% CI: 61-67). The overall prevalence of: Neisseria gonorrhea (NG) was 0.6% (95% CI: 0.2-1.5), Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) 1.4% (95% CI: 0.7-2.3), Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) 2.6% (95% CI: 1.6-3.8), Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) 2.3% (95% CI: 1.4-3.5), Mycoplasma hominis (MH) 19% (95% CI: 16-22), Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU) 23.2% (95% CI: 20.5-26.1), and Ureaplasma parvum (UP) 46.6% (95% CI: 43-50). The prevalence of NG, CT, and TV infection was 4.2% (37). There was correlation between CT (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=5.4, 95% CI=1.4-21, p=0.014), MH (AOR=2.0, 95% CI= 1.4-3.0, p=0.001), HIV status (AOR=3.6, 95% CI= 2.0-6.6, P<0.001) with high-risk HPV infection. Hr-HPV infection was independently associated with histological abnormalities (AOR=14.8, 95% CI:1.1-19.9, p=0.043). Conclusion: Our study revealed a high prevalence of UU and MH in one out of five and UP in almost half of asymptomatic Ethiopian women. The prevalence of TV, MG, CT, and NG was low. There was a link between CT, MH, and HIV status and high-risk HPV infection. A high-risk-human papillomavirus and HIV infection was independently linked with histological abnormalities.