STD: TESTING FOR HPV
March 27th, 2009 | Posted by admin | Category: Men's Health-Erectile DysfunctionNo Comments
Genital warts have a very characteristic appearance and can generally be recognized by an experienced health care provider. No test is available in clinical practice to screen a person for the virus that causes warts.
A technique used in research studies (the polymerase chain reaction test or PCR) detects the genetic material of the virus, but it is not routinely available and is very expensive. It is not even clear at this time if a negative test would definitively mean that a person is not infected with the warts virus. In the near future, a blood test may be available to screen for the antibodies to the virus, but this will not help distinguish between people who still have the infection and those who have cleared the infection.
The health care provider will carefully examine the entire genital and anal area to look for warts. The anal area is often overlooked by health care providers, especially when they are examining heterosexuals, but even without a history of anal sexual contact this is an area where warts can recur. The mouth should also be examined if the person has engaged in oral-genital contact. It is possible, although very uncommon, to see warts in this area.
One of the treatments for warts, freezing them with liquid nitrogen, can also help to diagnose them. Warts tend to “hold” the freeze longer than the surrounding normal skin, so they stay white from the freeze longer. This characteristic can be helpful to distinguish them from skin tags (little pieces of excess skin), which do not react in this way. Applying vinegar (3 percent acetic acid) may also make warts show up more clearly—warts tend to turn white with acetic acid, which normal skin does not do. This is not a specific test, however, and skin bumps that are not warts can also turn white with this test, leading to unnecessary treatment. In addition, the fact that areas of the skin show no white areas when washed with vinegar does not mean that a person is not infected with the virus. It only means that there are no detectable warts present at that time.
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