Efficacy and safety of intralesional measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine versus topical salicylic acid therapy for common warts: A comparative study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62992/1q042z18Keywords:
Common warts, Immunotherapy, MMR, Salicylic acidAbstract
Background: Treating warts endures a therapeutic challenge for dermatologists. No single therapy has been proven universally effective in achieving complete remission for all patients. However, the use of intralesional immunotherapy with various antigens including MMR vaccine has shown promising results in the treatment of different types of warts.
Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness and safety of the MMR vaccine in the treatment of warts and compare its efficacy over the traditional topical keratolytic therapy.
Methods: A hospital-based, prospective randomized study was conducted with 131 patients diagnosed with common warts over various parts of the body. The patients were randomly assigned into two groups. Group A included 67 patients who received intralesional MMR vaccine in every two weeks, and Group B included 64 patients in whom topical Salicylic acid was applied to the warts daily. The response to treatment was assessed at 2 weeks and after 12 weeks.
Results: The MMR group showed significantly better results, with 85.5% showing complete clearing, and only 4.8% of patients exhibiting no improvement. In contrast, 55.8% of patients in the SA group showed 100% clinical response, and 11.5% showed partial clearing (P<0.001). Both the MMR group and the salicylic acid group had similar side effect profiles.
Conclusion: Intralesional immunotherapy with MMR vaccine is safe, practicable, and cost-effective with minimal side effects and local complications than traditional salicylic acid therapy.
References
Syrjanen S, Puranen M. Human Papillomavirus Infections in Children: the Potential Role of Maternal Transmission. Critical Reviews in Oral Biology & Medicine. 2000;11(2):259-74.
Lipke MM. An armamentarium of wart treatments. Clinical medicine & research. 2006;4(4):273-93.
Sterling JC, Handfield-Jones S, Hudson PM. Guidelines for the management of cutaneous warts. The British journal of dermatology. 2001;144(1):4-11.
Bacelieri R, Johnson SM. Cutaneous warts: an evidence-based approach to therapy. Am Fam Physician. 2005;72(4):647-52.
Zamanian A, Mobasher P, Jazi GA. Efficacy of intralesional injection of mumps-measles-rubella vaccine in patients with wart. Advanced biomedical research. 2014;3:107.
Stanley M. Immune responses to human papillomavirus. Vaccine. 2006;24 Suppl 1:S16-22.
Nofal A, Nofal E. Intralesional immunotherapy of common warts: successful treatment with mumps, measles and rubella vaccine. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV. 2010;24(10):1166-70.
Scott M, Nakagawa M, Moscicki AB. Cell-mediated immune response to human papillomavirus infection. Clinical and diagnostic laboratory immunology. 2001;8(2):209-20.
Iorizzo M, Marazza G. Measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine: a new option to treat common warts? International Journal of Dermatology. 2014;53(4):e243-e5.
Chauhan PS, Mahajan VK, Mehta KS, Rawat R, Sharma V. The Efficacy and Safety of Intralesional Immunotherapy with Measles, Mumps, Rubella Virus Vaccine for the Treatment of Common Warts in Adults. Indian dermatology online journal. 2019;10(1):19-26.
Naseem R, Aamir S. The Efficacy of Intralesional Measles , Mumps , Rubella ( MMR ) Antigen in Treatment of Common Warts. Pak J Med Health Sci. 2016.
Raju, Ashwini, Swamy N, Raghavendra Rao RS, Healthcare. INTRALESIONAL MEASLES, MUMPS AND RUBELLA (MMR) VACCINE - AN EFFECTIVE THERAPEUTIC TOOL IN THE TREATMENT OF WART. Journal of Evidence Based Medicine. 2015;2:8548-51.
Saini S, Dogra NK, Dogra D. A prospective randomized open label comparative study of efficacy and safety of intralesional measles, mumps, rubella vaccine versus 100% trichloroacetic acid application in the treatment of common warts. J International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences. 2016;4:1529-33.
Kus S, Ergun T, Gun D, Akin O. Intralesional tuberculin for treatment of refractory warts. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV. 2005;19(4):515-6.
King M, Johnson SM, Horn TD. Intralesional immunotherapy for genital warts. Archives of dermatology. 2005;141(12):1606-7.
Horn TD, Johnson SM, Helm RM, Roberson PK. Intralesional immunotherapy of warts with mumps, Candida, and Trichophyton skin test antigens: a single-blinded, randomized, and controlled trial. Archives of dermatology. 2005;141(5):589-94.
Johnson SM, Horn TD. Intralesional immunotherapy for warts using a combination of skin test antigens: a safe and effective therapy. Journal of drugs in dermatology : JDD. 2004;3(3):263-5.
Johnson SM, Roberson PK, Horn TD. Intralesional injection of mumps or Candida skin test antigens: a novel immunotherapy for warts. Archives of dermatology. 2001;137(4):451-5.
Phillips RC, Ruhl TS, Pfenninger JL, Garber MR. Treatment of warts with Candida antigen injection. Archives of dermatology. 2000;136(10):1274-5.
Gupta S, Malhotra AK, Verma KK, Sharma VK. Intralesional immunotherapy with killed Mycobacterium w vaccine for the treatment of ano-genital warts: an open label pilot study. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV. 2008;22(9):1089-93.
Dhope AA, Madke B, Singh AL. Effect of measles mumps rubella vaccine in treatment of common warts. J Indian Journal of Drugs in Dermatology. 2017;3:14 - 9.
Downloads
Published
License
Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Public Health Asia Pacific
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
International Journal of Public Health Asia Pacific (IJPHAP) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 international (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license, unless otherwise stated. Please read our Policies page for more information on Open Access, copyright, and permissions.
