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Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted disease highly associated with cervical cancer in women. HPV has multiple strains but is categorized into low risk HPV and high risk HPV. High risk HPV can cause cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer mortality among American Indian (AI) women; therefore, it is important to screen for high risk HPV prevalence. AI women have cervical cancer mortality rate of 18/100,000. Nationally, women ages 65+ have a cervical cancer mortality rate of 9.3/100,000, and women <65 years old have a rate of 2.2/100,000. The Healthy People 2010 goal for cervical cancer mortality is 2/100,000 cases. It is important to screen for cervical cancer and know if the recently licensed HPV vaccination, Gardasil®, targets the predominant HPV strains among the women participating in this study.
The purpose of this project is to assess the HPV infection rate in the Montana American Indian Population, determine the frequencies of different HPV strains, and determine other known risk factors for cervical cancer and other factors associated with the lack of HPV screening.
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