Support for Lowering Cervical Cancer Screening Age To 25 for Women Living With HIV: Retrospective Cross-Sectional Programmatic Data From Botswana

Background: Women living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) tend to develop cervical cancer at a younger age than HIV-negative women. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) new guidelines for screening and treatment of cervical pre-cancer lesions for cervical cancer prevention include a conditional recommendation for initiating screening at age 25 for women living with HIV (WLWH). This recommendation is based on low-certainty evidence, and WHO calls for additional data. We describe the association of age and HIV status with visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) positivity and cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia grade two or higher (CIN2+) in Botswana. Methods: : A retrospective cross-sectional study of 5,714 participants aged 25 through 49 years who underwent VIA screening. VIA-positive women received cryotherapy if indicated or were referred for colposcopy. Known cervical cancer risk factors, screening, and histological results were extracted from the program database. We compared the proportions and association of VIA positivity and CIN2+ by age and HIV status. Results: : Median age was 35 years [IQR 31-39], and 18% of the women were aged 25-29. Ninety percent were WLWH; median CD4 count was 250 cells/µL [IQR 150-428], and 34.2% were on anti-retroviral treatment (ART). VIA-positivity was associated with younger age (OR 1.48, CI 1.28, 1.72 for 25-29 years versus age 30-49 years ), and HIV-positivity (OR 1.85, CI 1.51, 2.28). CIN2+ was associated with HIV positivity (OR 6.12, CI 3.39, 11.10), and proportions of CIN2+ were similar for both age groups in WLWH (12.1% versus 10.8%). Conclusions: : Younger WLWH in Botswana had a significant burden of CIN2+. This finding further supports lowering the screening age for WLWH from 30 to 25.