Effectiveness of an educational leaflet on the prevention of external genital warts recurrences.

The study aims to assess the effectiveness of an educational leaflet in the prevention of external genital warts recurrences after achieving clearance with topical immune response modifiers treatment. A six-month follow-up, prospective, open, multi-centre randomized by centres study was conducted, which included a total of 216 patients. A total of 103 (47.7%) patients were given an educational leaflet. In all, 201 subjects (93.1%) came to the second follow-up visit, of which 62.7% achieved condyloma acuminatum (CA) clearance. During follow-up, 15% (confidence intervals [CI] 95%, 7.1-26.6%) of the patients who were given the educational leaflet, and 33.3% (CI 95%, 20.4-48.4%) of those who were not given the educational leaflet showed CA recurrences; the global rate of CA recurrence at the end of the six-month follow-up was 23.1% (CI 95%, 15.6-32.2%). The educational leaflet has therefore proved to be effective at reducing the recurrence rate after successful treatment with immune response modifiers.