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Genital Warts – a Sexually Transmitted Infection


Introduction
Anogenital warts or genital warts are small lumps that develop on the genitals and/or around the anus (back passage). They are caused by a virus that can be passed on by close sexual contact. If you have genital warts, you will usually be advised to have tests to check for other sexually transmitted infections. They may rarely infect the new born baby during birth if the mother has genital warts.
Causative Agents - caused by a virus called the human papilloma virus (HPV)

Pathogenesis / Action in the Body
You need close 'skin to skin' contact to pass on the virus to another. It may take weeks or even months to develop warts after being infected with HPV. Most people who are infected do not develop warts but they can pass on the HPV virus to their contacts.

Symptoms and Signs
In men the warts usually develop on the outer skin of the penis. In women the warts usually develop on the vulva, just outside the vagina. They can occur in crops. Some may only have one or two which is barely noticable. Warts may also develop on the skin around the anus in both men and women. Rarely warts can occur in mouth and nose and also inside the urethra and the cervix.
Genital warts look like small, skin-coloured lumps on the skin.
Most of the time they don’t cause any symptoms but sometimes cause irritation and soreness, especially if they occur around the anus. Sometimes anogenital warts can bleed or cause pain on intercourse.

Complications
If the person has a lot of warts they can cause distress to the patient because it becomes so unsightly. If you have warts inside your urethra or anus, this can sometimes cause bleeding when you pass urine or bleeding from the anus.
There is a risk for cervical cancer in women if they have anogenital warts.

Management
Usually genital warts can be diagnosed clinically without any tests. However, up to 1 in 4 people with anogenital warts also have another sexually transmitted infection. Therefore swabs may be taken to test for other sexually transmitted infections even if you do not have any other symptoms.
If suspect it is best to go to a sexually transmitted diseases clinic where treatment will be done. There are several treatment options; applying chemicals and certain cauterization techniques to burn the lesions, surgical removal of warts are some of them. However it takes a long time for the warts to clear off. The warts can develop again because the HPV virus cannot be totally eradicated. Your sexual partner/s may have to be referred to the clinic if necessary. Never try to treat genital warts on your own.

Prevention and promotion
Limit sexual activity to one faithful partner.
Whenever you have unprotected sex¸ always use a condom.
There is a vaccine for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) now available in Sri Lanka to prevent you against cervical cancer caused by HPV. But whether it prevents you against genital warts is not proven.

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