Assessing Assay-Specific Viral Masking in a Population with High Prevalence of Multiple Human Papillomavirus Types
- Presentation Day/Time: Wednesday, April 22, 1:25 PM
- Presenter: Nneoma (Confidence) Anyanwu, PhD, Laboratory Leadership Service Fellow, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology
The Issue
- In high-risk populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM), infection with multiple types of human papillomavirus (HPV) is common and some types may obscure others in laboratory tests (i.e. viral masking).
What We Did
- From 2018 to 2024, more than 10,000 specimens from MSM were tested to evaluate the potential for test-specific viral masking. We used two different methods to analyze 26 pairs of HPV types to see if one was masking the other.
What We Found
- The first method identified 14 pairs that showed significant masking, eight of which included a type of HPV prevented by the vaccine. The second method identified 20 pairs that showed significant masking, 13 of which included a type of HPV prevented by the vaccine.
What This Means
- These findings highlight the importance of considering test-specific masking in HPV monitoring because when vaccine-types decrease, there could be a false increase in non-vaccine types leading to underrepresentation of HPV type distribution needed for accurate HPV monitoring.
