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Meffert and Anthony¹ claim in their letter that the association of human papillomavirus (HPV) type 7 with butcher's warts is misinformation. They argue that the only publication on this issue, by Orth et al² in 1981, actually found that HPV-2 was more commonly associated with butcher's warts than HPV-7. The alleged absence of any other published evidence led them to doubt the existence of a privileged link. I wish to respond to their 2 questions: "How do we know?" and "Are we sure?"

In 1981, Ostrow et al³ also noted the presence of what was later determined to be HPV-7 in the cutaneous warts of 4 butchers. One of these butchers also had HPV-2. In 1988, in an analysis of 160 butchers' warts, Jablonska et al⁴ found that HPV-2 and HPV-7 were the 2 most common genotypes (44% and 31%, respectively), and in 1995, Jablonska and Orth⁵ commented that in . . . [Full Text of this Article]