{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,13]],"date-time":"2026-04-13T14:48:03Z","timestamp":1776091683310,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"21","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,20]],"date-time":"2021-10-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1634688000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001323","name":"Poliomyelitis Research Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PRF_18\/101"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PRF_18\/101"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001323","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"National Research Foundation","award":["NRF_118710"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF_118710"]}]},{"name":"Flemish Government- Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR-IUC)","award":["VLIR-UOS ZIUS2015AP021"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["VLIR-UOS ZIUS2015AP021"]}]},{"name":"National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) Research Trust","award":["GRANT004_94740"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["GRANT004_94740"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: The SelfCerv Self-Collection Cervical Health Screening Kit (Ilex Medical Ltd., Johannesburg, South Africa) is an applicator tampon designed for self-collection of vaginal samples for the detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and E6\/E7 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA). The study aimed to evaluate the performance of the SelfCerv applicator tampon for the detection of hr-HPV for cervical cancer screening, and further to investigate women\u2019s experiences and preferences regarding self-sampling. Methods: Vaginal samples were collected from 527 gynecology clinic attendees aged \u226518 years at a tertiary hospital in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Self-samples were collected using the SelfCerv kit, followed by endocervical samples collected by a healthcare professional using Cervex-Brush\u00ae Combi. Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire on self-sampling experiences and preferences. Both samples were tested for 14 high-risk (hr) HPV types and E6\/E7 mRNA using the Abbott RealTime HR-HPV and Aptima HR-HPV mRNA assays, respectively. Results: The overall agreement for hr-HPV typing between 527 paired samples was good (87.1%; \u03ba =0.74) with high sensitivity (86.2%) and specificity (88.0%). HPV-16 (96.4%; \u03ba = 0.83) had higher agreement rate than HPV-18 (96.8%; \u03ba = 0.72) and the other 12 hr-HPVs (86.5%; \u03ba = 0.72). Two hundred and eighty-five (285) sample pairs tested for E6\/E7 mRNA showed fair agreement (70.2%; \u03ba= 0.34). Furthermore, self-sampling was reported as comfortable (90.5%) and painless (86.7%), with 88.4% of women preferring self-collection. Conclusions: Self-collected samples had good agreement with the healthcare professional-collected samples for the detection of hr-HPV DNA and the procedure was highly preferred by women. Self-sampling using SelfCerv can be used as an alternative to healthcare professional sampling in clinic-based routine cervical cancer screening.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm10214817","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,20]],"date-time":"2021-10-20T21:29:46Z","timestamp":1634765386000},"page":"4817","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Evaluation of ILEX SelfCerv for Detection of High-Risk Human Papillomavirus Infection in Gynecology Clinic Attendees at a Tertiary Hospital in South Africa"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6546-4867","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Teboho Amelia","family":"Tiiti","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Virological Pathology, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0204, South Africa"},{"name":"Laboratory of Cell Biology and Histology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerpen, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tebogo Loraine","family":"Mashishi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Virological Pathology, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0204, South Africa"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Varsetile Varster","family":"Nkwinika","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Virological Pathology, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0204, South Africa"},{"name":"South African Vaccination and Immunization Centre, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0204, South Africa"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kgotlaethata Aaron","family":"Molefi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0204, South Africa"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ina","family":"Benoy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Cell Biology and Histology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerpen, Belgium"},{"name":"Algemeen Medisch Laboratorium (AML), Sonic Healthcare, 2020 Antwerpen, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Johannes","family":"Bogers","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Cell Biology and Histology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerpen, Belgium"},{"name":"Algemeen Medisch Laboratorium (AML), Sonic Healthcare, 2020 Antwerpen, Belgium"},{"name":"Department of Anatomical Pathology, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0204, South Africa"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5101-5198","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Selokela Gloria","family":"Selabe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Virological Pathology, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0204, South Africa"},{"name":"National Health Laboratory Service, Department of Virological Pathology, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0204, South Africa"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9365-514X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ramokone Lisbeth","family":"Lebelo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Virological Pathology, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0204, South Africa"},{"name":"South African Vaccination and Immunization Centre, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0204, South Africa"},{"name":"National Health Laboratory Service, Department of Virological Pathology, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0204, South Africa"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"209","DOI":"10.3322\/caac.21660","article-title":"Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries","volume":"71","author":"Sung","year":"2021","journal-title":"CA Cancer J. 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