Prevalence of high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV) in Slovenian women attending organized National Cervical Cancer Screening 14 years after implementation of the National HPV Vaccination ProgramLasič Pecev, Mateja (Avtor) Oštrbenk Valenčak, Anja (Avtor) Smrkolj, Špela (Avtor) Bohinc, Klara (Avtor) Pflaum, Ana (Avtor) Poljak, Mario (Avtor) HPVSloveniacentral ane eastern Europecervical cancerprevalencescreeningvaccinationBackground/Objectives: To assess overall and type-specific HPV vaccine effectiveness in central and eastern Europe (CEE), the age-stratified prevalence of cervical HPV infection was determined among Slovenian women aged 20 to 64 attending a cervical cancer screening program 14 years after implementation of a national HPV vaccination program, which was then compared with 2009-2010 pre-vaccination data using the same methodological approach. Methods: Cervical samples of 4419 women were tested in 2023-2025 using the clinically validated Alinity m HR HPV Assay, and individual HPV types were determined by the Allplex HPV HR Detection assay. Results were compared with 2009-2010 pre-vaccination data generated using the same assay on an age-range matched cohort of women. Results: The overall prevalence of the 14 Alinity-targeted HPV types was 10.0% in 2023-2025 versus 13.3% in 2009-2010 (p < 0.001). HPV16 prevalence declined from 3.5% to 1.5% (p < 0.001), and HPV18 prevalence from 1.1% to 0.5% (p = 0.005). In women aged 20 to 24 with 40% uptake of quadrivalent HPV vaccine, overall HPV prevalence dropped from 25.3% to 12.8% (p < 0.001). No single case of HPV16/HPV18 infection was detected among vaccinated women. Conclusions: The first large-scale, systematic, and methodologically consistent study of HPV vaccine effectiveness in CEE showed a substantial reduction in high-risk HPV prevalence after implementation of the national program, with the greatest decline among women aged 20 to 24, who harbored the highest HPV burden in the pre-vaccination era. These locally acquired data will considerably inform public health strategies on cervical cancer elimination in CEE.20252026-04-20 13:23:52Neznano29079UDK: 618.1-006ISSN pri članku: 2076-393XDOI: 10.3390/vaccines13101050COBISS_ID: 262882307sl