Molecular detection of human papillomavirus-16 among Sudanese patients diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma and salivary gland carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: Human papillomavirus (HPV) gained momentum as a potential etiological factor for many types of cancers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of HPV-16 infection among Sudanese patients diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) and Salivary Gland Carcinoma. A descriptive, hospital-based study was conducted. 150 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded blocks were collected. RESULTS: The study population included a total of 150 patients aged between 18 to 87 years with a mean age of 48.8 ± 11.9 years. Based on gender, females constituted 46.7% while males constituted 53.3%. The 150 patients were classified into 40 (26.0%) esophageal, 30 (20.0%) nasopharyngeal, 18 (12.0%) conjunctival, 18 (12.0%) tongue 12 (8.0%) laryngeal, 8 (5.3%) lip, 6 (4.0%) oropharyngeal, 6 (4.0%) mucoepidermoid, and 6 (4.0%) adenoid cystic, and 6 (4.0%) myoepithelial carcinomas. Odds ratio for male and female diagnosed with carcinoma was 1.025 [0.439-2.394, 95% CI]. Molecular detection of HPV-16 revealed a prevalence of 26 (17.3%) patients were positive for HPV-16. According to cancer diagnosis, esophageal SCC patients showed a high proportion of HPV-16; 14/40 (35.0%). A statistically significant difference was seen for the distribution of HPV-16 positive patients based on cancer diagnosis, P value 0.001.

Knowledge gaps of STIs in Africa; Systematic review.

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are ambiguous burden of tremendous health, social and economic consequences. The current systematic review was conducted in order to determine awareness and knowledge of Africans toward sexually transmitted infections, not only concerning HIV/AIDS, but also other STIs such as gonorrhea, syphilis, HBV, HCV and HPV. A systematic review of literature was conducted, studies were retrieved and selected after fulfilling the inclusion criteria as well as passing the assessment procedure. Related data was extracted, quantitative analysis was conducted among participants who responded to questions related to HIV, HBV, HCV, HPV or STIs knowledge, sensitivity analysis as well as subgroup analysis were also conducted. Seventy four articles addressing knowledge among 35 African countries were included and 136 questions were analyzed and synthesized. The question "does using condom reduces HIV transmission?" was answered by 1,316,873 Africans in 35 countries, 66.8% [95% Cl; 62.6, 70.9] answered yes. While the question "is sexual contact a possible route of HBV transmission?" was answered by 7,490 participants in 5 countries; 42.5% [95% Cl; 20.4, 64.7] answered yes. The differences observed among populations are highlighting the possibility for improvement by directing light toward specific populations as well as addressing specific awareness knowledge to ensure that the general as well as the related specific preventive knowledge is improved.