NEW YORK, March 22 (UPI) -- U.S. women with HIV, but normal cervical cancer screening results and who test negative for human papillomavirus, can get Pap smears in three-year intervals.
Cervical cancer screening recommendations in the United States have been recently updated and now advise using an interval of three years between screenings in healthy women 30 years or older who have normal cytology results and who test negative for oncogenic -- cancer-associated -- human papillomavirus, or HPV.
Women who are HIV-positive are urged to have two Pap smears six-months apart after their initial HIV diagnosis, and if both are normal, should undergo an annual screening.
Tiffany Harris from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York found women with HIV, normal cervical cancer screening results and negative tests for HPV can also have Pap smears every three years -- the same interval recommended for women who don't have HIV.
The findings are published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
