Genital Warts Treatment, testing and HPV immunisation.
- HPV is the world's commonest STD and causes cervical, vulval, anal and other types of cancers.
- HPV has many subtypes, the most common of which are types 6, 11, 16 and 18.
- HPV 6 and 11 causes ugly external ganital warts whilst 16 and 18 are invisible and cause genital and anal cancers.
- External genital warts are ugly, take a long time to clear, require intensive treatment and are often very distressing indeed.
- Infection with the virus is typically transient so a person may clear an infection after a short period.
- Because we will often periodically clear infections it is possible to use this knowledge to vaccinate against the virus and also reinfection.
- Vaccination has been proven to hugely reduce infection rates and consequently reduce the cancers the infection may cause.
- Genital warts treatment using liquid nitrogen, laser, curetting, surgical excision and also imiquinod cream is available routinely.
- At Freedomhealth we are keen to vaccinate against HPV at the earliest opportunity.
- Our preferred routine at Freedomhealth is to use PCR testing to identify if a person already has HPV.
- If there is no proven infection then we would be keen to immunise using the vaccine called Gardasil.
- Gardasil is given once, then after two months and finally after three months. A booster is likely to be needed from time to time.
- We charge £60 for the HPV4 test and £150 for each of three vaccinations
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