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)

Genital Warts | 1990 Case Definition

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Last Reviewed: April 16, 2021

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