Stomping Out Genital Warts?

Results from an Australian study recently published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections found that the number of new cases of genital warts in young women dropped by 25% during each quarter of the first year after the country began providing the HPV vaccine. The number of cases seen in heterosexual men also dropped each quarter, although by a smaller 5 percent. The fact that the decline in the number of cases of genital warts began approximately 6 months after free vaccination campaigns had gotten under way, and that it followed more than 3 years of no changes in the incidence of genital warts, suggests that the vaccination program may be responsible. Although the study only looked at data from one large urban health center, the results are promising, and hopefully other researchers will engage in further investigation.

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