Objective: To determine the prevalence and genotype distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection among Chinese patients with mucopurulent cervicitis (MPC) or cervical cancer (CC). Methods: In total, 191 cases of CC (n = 66), acute MPC (n = 84), and healthy cervix controls (n = 41) were initially included; samples were collected between May 21, 2008, and October 9, 2011. Cervical specimens were screened for HPV using a nested polymerase chain reaction assay and DNA sequencing. Results: Overall prevalence of HPV infection was 20.0% in the control group, 53.3% in the MPC group, and 93.8% in the CC group. The predominant genotype detected in all 3 groups was the oncogenic variant HPV 16 (87.7%, 18.7%, and 10.0% in the CC, MPC and control specimens, respectively). The second most frequent genotype among patients with MPC was HPV 58. This variant is also oncogenic and was detected at a higher rate in the MPC group (9.3%) than in the control (2.5%) and CC (1.5%) groups. Conclusion: Infection with HPV was prevalent among Chinese women with MPC or CC. Furthermore, the high prevalence of oncogenic genotypes observed among HPV-positive patients with MPC suggests that this group is at increased risk of developing CC. (c) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. on behalf of International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics.