Diabetes and genital warts: an unhappy coalition

Through clinical practice, it is often perceived that patients with diabetes are more likely to suffer from severe and recalcitrant warts. This study was set up to investigate if genital warts were more common in patients with diabetes and to determine if patients with diabetes and genital warts required more treatment than those without diabetes. Only female patients with diabetes and genital warts were investigated and were compared to the non-diabetic population. Results suggested that patients with diabetes had more extensive warts and recurrences. This study will hopefully further inform the debate surrounding preferential use of quadrivalent human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine as opposed to bivalent HPV vaccine especially in the setting of a Diabetes Young Person's clinic.