Efficacy of viable BCG vaccine paste in the treatment of common warts: a double-blind randomized control trial

Abstract

Background

Treatment of common warts may be painful or leaves scars, mainly using traditional destructive methods. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the viable Bacillus Calmette‐Guérin (BCG) vaccine in paste formula as an immunotherapeutic modality for common warts treatment.

Methods

This double-blind and randomized, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial was conducted at the Ahvaz Imam Hospital Dermatology Department from November 2014 to 2015. Overall 80 patients with common warts in two groups (case and control) received BCG vaccine paste once weekly for eight consecutive weeks. Follow-up was done every two weeks during treatment and six months after the treatment to evaluate recurrence in patients with complete resolution.

Results

In group A, eight patients (20%) had a complete response, 15 patients (37.5%) partial response, four patients (10%) low response, and 13 patients (32.5%) no response (p < .001). All patients in group B had no response to treatment (p < .001). After six months of follow-up, no recurrence was seen. Duration of disease less than 12 months (p = .001) and the number of lesions less than three (p = .01) were determining factors of response to treatment.

Conclusion

Topical BCG vaccine paste was an effective treatment for common warts, without recurrence and significant complications.

Keywords:

• condylomata acuminate
• BCG vaccine
• immunotherapy
• therapy

Acknowledgments

This study is part of a thesis by Sedigheh Tavakoli. Hereby, we wish to thank all our colleagues in the departments of Dermatology and Medicine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data sets generated for this study are available at reasonable request to the corresponding author.