What are subclinical warts?

In our daily life, genital warts are a very common disease. In clinical practice, there is a term called subclinical warts. What is this? In fact, this means that although some people in life are infected with genital warts, because the body's resistance is very strong, the virus cannot multiply in the body and is dormant in the cells, in a subclinical infection symptom, which is called subclinical warts. However, once the body's resistance is weakened and the virus is replicated, clinical genital warts will appear.

Subclinical infection refers to the vulva being infected with the human papillomavirus that causes genital warts. The virus has invaded the epithelial cells and caused cell proliferation. A small piece of tissue removed can be seen under a microscope to show proliferation of epithelial cells and abnormal changes in the invaded cells, but no changes can be seen when observing the infected skin or mucous membrane with the naked eye. Because it cannot be seen with the naked eye, it is often overlooked. Subclinical infection is one of the causes of recurrence after treatment.

Subclinical infection can be identified. The most commonly used method is to apply a 3% to 5% concentration of glacial acetic acid solution to the vulva of people with genital warts. You can also use gauze soaked in 3% to 5% glacial acetic acid solution to apply to the vulva, such as the male glans or female labia. Remove the gauze after 3 minutes. At this time, the lesions of genital warts are clearly visible and white, and the areas of subclinical infection are uniform, clearly defined white areas that are easy to identify. This is called the acetic acid white test. It will be clearer if you use a colposcope or a magnifying glass to observe. This simple and easy method can also be performed by the patients themselves, especially before the first treatment with topical medications. 3% acetic acid solution should be applied or wet-packed to identify the sites of genital warts and subclinical infection, so as to apply the medication more accurately, which is very helpful in reducing recurrence.

The repeated attacks of genital warts cause unnecessary trouble to patients. The reason for the recurrence, simply put, is improper treatment or inadequate care. Improper treatment is the main cause of the recurrence of genital warts. The patient's poor personal hygiene habits, men's foreskin is too long, women's various vulvar and vaginal infections, and the increased secretions caused by them, resulting in a local moist environment, etc., can all lead to the recurrence of the disease. Relapse is treated as follows:

1. General treatment: Pay attention to the cleanliness of the vulva, avoid promiscuous sexual relations and contact with patients with sexually transmitted diseases. Participate in more outdoor sports, develop good living habits and eating habits, and improve the body's immunity.

2. Cryotherapy: Using liquid nitrogen at a low temperature of -196℃, the freezing method is used to treat genital warts, which promotes the necrosis and shedding of wart tissue. The operation is simple, efficient, and easy for patients to tolerate. This method is suitable for condyloma acuminatum with a small number and small area. It can be treated 1 to 2 times with an interval of one week.

3. Laser treatment: Usually CO2 laser is used to treat genital warts by cauterization. Single or a small number of multiple warts can be treated once, and multiple or large warts can be treated 2 to 3 times, with an interval of one week.

4. Aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy: This method can selectively kill rapidly proliferating cells, not only destroying condyloma acuminatum visible to the naked eye, but also clearing subclinical lesions and latently infected tissues. It has the advantages of high cure rate, low recurrence rate, few and mild adverse reactions, and good patient compliance.

5. Immunotherapy: It is not recommended to be used alone, but can be used as an auxiliary treatment and to prevent recurrence. Interferon can be injected intramuscularly, subcutaneously, or at the base of the lesion, interleukin-2 can be injected subcutaneously or intramuscularly, and polycytokines can be injected intramuscularly.

In order to reduce the recurrence rate of genital warts, in addition to choosing a treatment method that suits you, you should also pay attention to daily care and prevention. Do not use other people's underwear, swimsuits, bathtubs and other clothes and toiletries. In addition, when using public toilets, try to use squat toilets. Pay attention to personal hygiene. Each person should have his or her own basin for bathing, and towels should not be mixed.