Wart advice and questions

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[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

I'll go straight to your questions.

1) Most people would agree that someone with known genital warts should advise their partners for at least a few months after the last lesion has cleared up.  The possible problem with your dermatologist's advice is that typically the HPV infection involves normal-appearing skin in the vicinity of the overt warts; so that removal of the wart itself definitely does not guarantee the infection is gone.  But since the science is not completely clear, neither are the ethics, and you will get different advice from equaly qualifed providers.  Ultimately it's up to you.

2) Six months is only a ballpark estimate.  Probably it takes only a few weeks in some cases, probably more than a year in others.  As I said, these are judgment calls, not fact-based advice.

3) No, not odd at all.  Some of your partners may have had asymptomatic infection (at least half of all HPV 6/11 [wart virus] infections never show overt warts); others might have been immune due to previous infection; others might have had internal warts that were never diagnosed; and others might have had warts but didn't tell you.

4) Most genital warts are under 3-4 mm in size.  As I said above, at least half of HPV 6/11 infections are asymptomatic, often because small warts are not noticed.

Keep your perspective:  With rare exceptions, genital warts and other HPV 6/11 infections are an inconvenience, not a serious health risk.  

I hope this helps.  Good luck.

[worriedwart07]

Thanks for getting back to me so fast.  

You referred to either HPV 6 or 11 as the cause of my wart, but couldn't it have been caused by any of the low risk subtypes?

Any particular things that I should do to promote virus clearance?  Are there any prescription topical preparations that I can apply to my skin in that area that might promote the destruction of any lurking virus by my immune system?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Over 90% of genital warts are caused by HPV 6 or 11.  Nothing in the way of medications, diet, or anything else is known to influence HPV clearance.

[worriedwart07]

I am frustrated that I had the misfortune to contract either HPV 6 or 11 as you suggest, because it seems to me that they are relatively rare.

Are the risk factor for 6 and 11 any different than the other HPVs or was it just my bad luck?  

Or am I reading into this too much and should I just consider them to be a random HPV strain and treat them no differently?