Knowledge, awareness and prevalence of Human Papillomavirus among local University students and Healthcare workers in South India: A cross-sectional study

Background: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is associated with half a dozen of cancers of various sites. Although HPV vaccines have a great potential to prevent HPV-related illness, due to the lack of knowledge and absence of effective immunization schemes, HPV-associated diseases continue to rise. It is important that the students and healthcare workers are well informed about the risks of HPV infection and its prevention. Methods: A questionnaire-based survey was conducted on 242 participants involving students from medical and non-medical backgrounds and healthcare workers within a university setting. The participant's knowledge on general awareness of HPV, HPV infection and associated diseases, and HPV vaccines were tested. As an exploratory study, an oral rinse of the participants was collected to assess the prevalence of HPV infection in the general population. Results: The response rate was 96.8 % with the majority of the participants being female (68 %). There was no significant difference in the mean knowledge scores between the genders. Medical students and healthcare workers had significantly higher mean knowledge scores when compared to non-medical students (8.97 and 9.33 vs 7.08). Only one-third of the participants identified that HPV does not cause AIDS and Herpes. More than 50 % of the participants did not know that if HPV vaccines were available in India. The majority of the participants agreed to provide their oral rinse for HPV testing. PCR analysis did not detect any HPV-DNA. Conclusion: Overall results emphasize that education about HPV is urgently needed to address some worrying gaps in knowledge.