FRIDAY, Oct. 16 (HealthDay News) -- There has been a significant decline in the number of cases of genital warts since 2007 when Australia introduced vaccination against four strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) for girls aged 12 to 18 years and young women under the age of 26, according to a study published online Oct. 16 in Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Christopher K. Fairley, Ph.D., of the University of Melbourne in Carlton, Australia, and colleagues conducted a study of 36,055 clients treated at a sexual health clinic in Melbourne between 2004 and 2008, of whom 3,826 (10.6 percent) were diagnosed with genital warts.

Among women aged under 28 years, the researchers found that in 2008 there was a 25.1 percent drop per quarter in the number of cases of genital warts versus a 1.8 percent per quarter increase from 2004 through 2007. When they looked at other datasets, they found that young heterosexual men also had a 5 percent per quarter decrease in cases of genital warts in 2008.

"The reduction in genital wart diagnoses in 2008 among heterosexual but not among homosexual men may be consistent with reduced heterosexual transmission of HPV as a result of female vaccination," the authors write. "These data should be of value to governments making decisions about whether to implement HPV vaccination in women and may assist in informing the choice of vaccine."

The lead author has shares in CSL Biotherapies, which manufactures the quadrivalent HPV vaccine Gardasil, and he and other authors reported having received honoraria and research funding from CSL Biotherapies and GlaxoSmithKline.

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