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Genital Warts
1996 Case Definition

Genital Warts
1996 Case Definition
NOTE: A surveillance case definition is a set of uniform criteria used to define a disease for public health surveillance. Surveillance case definitions enable public health officials to classify and count cases consistently across reporting jurisdictions. Surveillance case definitions are not intended to be used by healthcare providers for making a clinical diagnosis or determining how to meet an individual patient’s health needs.

Clinical Description

An infection characterized by the presence of visible, exophytic (raised) growths on the internal or external genitalia, perineum, or perianal region

Laboratory Criteria For Diagnosis

  • Histopathologic changes characteristic of human papillomavirus infection in specimens obtained by biopsy or exfoliative cytology, OR
  • Demonstration of virus by antigen or nucleic acid detection in a lesion biopsy

Case Classification

Probable

A clinically compatible case without histopathologic diagnosis and without microscopic or serologic evidence that the growth is the result of secondary syphilis

Confirmed

A clinically compatible case that is laboratory confirmed

Comments

Genital warts should be reported only once per patient. The first diagnosis for a patient with no previous diagnosis should be reported.

Related Case Definition(s)

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Content Source:
Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology

National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)

NNDSS receives and shares case data from state, local, and territorial health departments to help public health monitor, control, and prevent serious diseases.

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