Our objective was to determine the association between viral load of high risk human papilloma virus (HPV) using the Hybrid Capture II (HC II) system and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) lesion stage. A total of 182 consecutive women with confirmed diagnoses of CIN 1-3 and 182 healthy women with negative Pap were included. All subjects underwent structured interviews focused on socioeconomic and reproductive factors. HC II testing was used to detect human papilloma virus (HPV) DNA. Viral load was measured by light measurements expressed as relative lights unit (RLU) ratio (specimens/control). Log(10)RLU ratios were categorized for analysis into four groups: negative (