6,11,16,18 commonly cause anogenital infection, whereas types 1,2,3,4 and 10 cause skin warts. Warts usually appear 2 to 8 months after the infection has been acquired, but may take longer, even years, to appear.
Asymptomatic infection is also common.
It is important to realise that many people can be infected with the genital wart virus but show no obvious lumpy warts. Individuals infected with the virus, even without the lesions, can infect sexual partners. Some women have no evidence of genital wart virus, except on their Pap smear. Unfortunately, there is no comparable test available for men to ascertain the presence of wart virus infection when there are no lesions. Because genital warts is not a notifiable disease, no direct statistics are available on its prevalence in Australia.