RESPONSE TO PODOPHYLLOTOXIN TREATMENT OF GENITAL WARTS IN RELATION TOHIV-1 INFECTION AMONG PATIENTS IN DAR-ES-SALAAM, TANZANIA

Forty-two Tanzanian patients with genital warts were treated with 0.5% podophyllotoxin solution (Wartec) for 3 days. Thirteen patients (30.9 %) were cured and a further 7 patients (16.7%) had more than 50% of le sions cleared at 6 weeks, while 19 patients were resistant to treatmen t. Three patients had a recurrence of lesions after an initial respons e. Thirty-three patients were tested for serological evidence of infec tion with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and 15 (45.5%) patients w ere shown to be HIV-1 antibody positive. The response to treatment was analysed in relation to HIV antibody status. The cure rate was signif icantly higher in HIV seronegative patients (8/18 = 44.4%) compared to HIV seropositive patients (1/15 = 6.7%) (P = 0.018). We conclude that podophyllotoxin treatment provides a useful non-hospital based treatm ent for genital warts, but HIV infection appears to contribute to the failure of treatment for genital warts.