is genital warts always a strain of HPV?

3 Comments

1. tarnishedsilverheart says:

   August 7, 2009 at 12:11 am

   Yes genital warts are on the genital HPV type.
   All warts anywhere on the body are one of the 100+ HPV (human Papilloma virus) types.
   They are about 40 genital HPV types that are considered SDI’s because they are transmitted most often through sex. They are 15 high risk HPV types (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68, 73, 82) that are considered high risk HPV types these are the HPV that might persist and progress to cancer if left untreated. These 15 high risk HPV types are found in anal cancer, vulva and vaginal cancer…and oral cancers.
   Visible Genital warts are usually low risk HPV types 6 or 11. These HPV types are not usually found cancers…but people with visible genital HPV types may also carry a co-infection with high risk HPV types. Low risk HPV types can cause abnormal cell changes of the cervix….but low risk HPV types usually regress faster than high risk HPV types. Other low risk HPV types are 40, 42, 43, 44, 54, 61, 70, 72, and 81
   This link will tell you more about all warts that affect the body and the HPV types that affect the area.
   http://www.emedicine.com/med/TOPIC1037.HTM

   Genital Warts
   http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/TOPIC640.HTM

   Genital warts
   Condylomata bearing HPV-6 or -11 have identical clinical
   manifestations and histology [2]. Recent studies have shown that about
   100% of GWs are caused by either HPV-6 or -11 but that 20–50% of
   lesions also contain co-infections with HR HPV types [3] and [4]. GWs
   do not usually result in major morbidity or mortality, but cause
   significant psychological morbidity and very substantial healthcare
   costs. Occasionally GWs persist for long periods of time and, rarely,
   such long-standing lesions may progress to malignancy. GWs are highly
   infectious, with a transmission rate of about 65% within sexual
   partnerships from an infected to a susceptible sexual partner, and an
   incubation period of between 3 weeks and 8 months, with the majority
   developing warts at around 2–3 months [3]. Once GWs have developed,
   they may show minimal change over time, become more numerous or
   larger, or regress spontaneously. The majority of placebo-controlled
   GW therapy trials show low rates of regression (around 5% complete
   clearance) in the short term, although in one study over 16 weeks 20%
   of women and 5% of men using placebo completely cleared their warts,
   and 38% of women and 22% of men using placebo cleared over 50% of
   their baseline warts [3]. Regressing warts contain significantly more
   CD4 positive T cells, both within the stroma underlying the lesions
   and the condylomata themselves, and greater expression of activation
   markers [3]. There is no report of the rate of spontaneous regression
   that may occur in the longer term. Following GW clearance with
   therapy, recurrence is common and is often seen within 3 months in 25%
   of cases, although rates of up to 67% have been observed [3]. In
   clinical practice recurrences are often seen at sites of previous
   lesions, and in these cases HPV infection in stem cells or
   slow-turnover cells at the site of previous clearance has persisted
   and then reactivated. The proportion of HPV-6/11 infections that are
   either completely cleared or persist in a latent form after clinical
   resolution is unknown, and, indeed, animal models suggest that both
   outcomes can occur [3].
   HPV-6/11 as a cause of cervical neoplasia
   HPV-6 and -11 are frequently associated with LSIL. A recent
   meta-analysis of 55 studies reported HPV-6 to be present in 8.1% of
   HPV-positive LSIL cases and HPV-11 in 3.2% of cases [25]. However, it
   remains unclear in what proportion of these HPV-6/11-positive LSIL
   cases there is concomitant co-infection with a HR type, and whether
   such HR co-infections would be "minority passenger" infections as
   described in GWs, or represent true multiple-morphology cervical lesions.

   Costs of HPV-6/11 disease
   The principal healthcare costs caused by HPV-6/11 are through GWs and
   RRP. Recent UK- and USA-specific data on the costs of treatment of GWs
   in routine clinical practice [38] and [39] estimated the cost of a
   single successful episode of treatment of a case of GWs to be £216 ($
   377) in the UK and $ 436 in the USA. Using the UK STI clinic 2004 GWs
   prevalence data, this equates to around £31 million ($ 54 million) per
   annum for the UK. One study from the USA estimated the annual direct
   healthcare costs of GWs as $ 200 million [40]. In a report from the
   Task Force on RRP, the annual cost for surgical procedures in the USA
   was estimated to be $ 109 million for JORRP and $ 42 million for AORRP
   [27]. In countries with cervical screening programmes there will also
   be significant costs associated with HPV-6/11-associated abnormal
   cytology and consequent procedures, although estimates of these costs
   are not available.

   http://www.sciencedirect.com/
2. iakerman says:

   August 7, 2009 at 12:11 am

   Actually, i got no idea what your doctor is talking about!

   perhaps s/he is traying to tell you that there are strains of HPV that cause genital warts and there are other strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer.

   but no, genital warts, as defined by medical dictionaries, is caused by some strains of HPV. As wikipedia defines them: They can be caused by strains 6, 11, 30, 42, 43, 44, 45, 51, 52 and 54 of genital HPV; types 6 and 11 are responsible for 90% of genital warts cases.