What are warts?

Warts are common flesh colored bumps on skin that represent a kind of skin infection (caused by HPV or human papilloma virus). Some warts can be dark, flat or rough. As warts are contagious and can spread on touching the wart, especially on damaged skin, the appearance of warts can often cause concern. Viral warts can grow or multiply rapidly but they are benign (not cancerous), and control & treatment are possible.

Warts can spread from one place on your body to another. Warts can spread from person to person.

What causes warts?

A type of viruses called human papillomavirus (HPV) which can infect the top layer of skin, cause warts. Cuts, scrapes can make it easier to catch and spread - thus warts are common in children. In adults the parts of the body that people shave often such as the beard area in men and the legs in women are commonly affected.

How does one get warts

Anyone can get warts. Some people are more prone to getting a wart virus (HPV) than others: Children and teens, people who bite their nails or pick at hangnails and people with a weakened immune system. You can get warts from touching a wart on someone’s body / from touching something that another person’s wart touched (like towels) over the next weeks/months.

Warts can also spread from one place on your body to another. Warts can also spread from person to person.

How can you prevent warts

what can be done to treat warts

A treatment we commonly use for warts is cautery. In this method we use a numbing cream or liquid on the area of the wart and then burn and scrape it off. The treatment is quick, painless and inexpensive.

IMPORTANT TO KNOW: WARTS CAN RETURN FAST.

Warts often return at the same site or appear in a new spot. Sometimes, it seems that new warts appear as fast as old ones go away. This happens when the old warts shed virus cells into the skin before the warts are treated. This allows new warts to grow around the first warts. The best way to prevent this is to treat early.

There is no cure for the wart virus.

No treatment is universally effective at eradicating viral warts. In children, even without treatment, 50% of warts disappear within six months, and 90% are gone in 2 years. They are more persistent in adults, but they clear up eventually. They are likely to recur in patients that are immune suppressed, for example: organ transplant recipients. Recurrence is more frequent in tobacco smokers.

About the viruses causing warts

Warts are caused by HPV or Human Papilloma Virus.

More than 100 HPV subtypes are known, with the most common subtypes being types 2, 3, 4, 27, 29, and 57.

HPV is spread by direct skin-to-skin contact or auto- inoculation. This means if a wart is scratched or picked, the viral particles may be spread to another area of skin; new warts may be visible after as long as a year.

References:

• AAD.org

• dermnet.nz

https://dermnetnz.org/topics/viral-wart/

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