20.500.12556/DiRROS-29079 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 Program Background/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. HPV Slovenia central ane eastern Europe cervical cancer prevalence screening vaccination Slovenija srednja in vzhodna Evropa rak materničnega vratu prevalenca presejalni testi cepljenje true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Neznano 2026-04-20 13:23:52 2026-04-20 13:23:52 2026-04-21 04:15:24 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Opis vira z dne 24. 12. 2025; str. 1-16 iss. 10, [article no.] 1050 Vol. 13 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 618.1-006 2076-393X 10.3390/vaccines13101050 262882307 RAZ_Lasic_Pecev_Mateja_2025.pdf RAZ_Lasic_Pecev_Mateja_2025.pdf 1 89CC09A9AD5838FB3C2FC94AAB0C663F c9df834a2b4dcb9ee2a55e027f6b40314e69b8667e24b9615f992534504469c2 8aa536d0-3cab-11f1-92e1-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=43430 https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/13/10/1050 1 6aedacc1-3cab-11f1-92e1-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=43429 Univerzitetni klinični center Ljubljana 0 0 0