Clinical and epidemiological patterns of ano-genital warts among male patients in Erbil City, Iraq

Abstract EN

Background and objectives : Ano-genital warts consist of epidermal and dermal papules or nodules on the perineum, genitalia, crural folds, and anus.

Up to the researchers' knowledge, no study concerning the genital warts in Erbil city was published, which was a motivation to study this problem, regarding the epidemiological and clinical patterns of this disease in Erbil city.

Patients and methods : This is a cross-sectional study ; the data collected conveniently from male patients that have clinical features of genital warts attending two private dermatology clinics in Erbil city from 15th June 2009 through 15th June 2011.

Results : In this study, 45 male adults were included ; their ages ranged from 20 to 49 years, with mean ±SD of 29.8 ± 6.017.

The highest rate of genital wart was among age group of 25-29 years (35.6 %).

Other statistics are; (71.1 %) of study sample were married ; (40 %) were alcoholics ; (88.9 %) were not using condom in their sexual contact, (66.7 %) had more than one sexual partner, (53.3 %) of the cases were illiterate or have primary school education and no one of the cases was homosexual.

Sixty percent of the lesions were papular in shape, (53.3 %) were affecting more than one site of external genitalia, (91 %) of the patients had multiple warts, (11.1 %) had past history of one of STIs (sexually transmitted infection), (15.6 %) of the cases were associated with other sexually transmitted infections and all the cases were contracted through sexual contact.

Conclusion : The study concluded that the genital warts are low or infrequent in Erbil city when compared to other areas.

The existence of traditional inhibition imposed by the religion and the society on the sexual behavior may be a factor in the low rate of the disease in this community.