Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection and genotype frequency in the oral mucosa of newborns in Milan, Italy

Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cutaneous and mucosal infections in both adults and children. In order to evaluate HPV prevalence and the spectrum of genotypes in the oral cavity of paediatric subjects, a retrospective study was carried out on oral-pharyngeal swabs collected from 177 newborns aged 0-6months. HPV-DNA was detected by a nested-PCR; the viral typing was made through DNA sequencing. HPV infection was identified in 25 subjects (14.1%) and the sequence analysis showed eight distinct genotypes. These data confirm HPV detection in newborn oral mucosa. Further investigations are needed to clarify the methods of HPV acquisition.