Prevalence of HPV cervical infections among imprisoned women in Barcelona, Spain

Editor,—The penitentiary centres in Spain harbour inmates in whom the combination of HIV infection, history of injecting drug use, and prostitution is common.1 Extensive protocols to detect sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis are implemented in these centres; however, human papillomavirus (HPV) infections and related lesions are not routinely searched for. Although Spain is characterised by a very low incidence of cervical cancer,2 a high rate of cervical cancer has been reported recently among the AIDS female population in Catalonia.3 We carried out a study aiming to characterise HPV cervical infection and related cervical lesions among women with many potential risk factors for cervical …