HPV causes the excessive and rapid growth of keratin, which is a hard protein on the top layer of the skin. This results in warts forming. Different HPV strains cause different warts. These strains can transmit through close skin-to-skin contact and contact with items recently exposed to HPV. The virus can spread to other parts of the body through :.
Having wet or damaged skin, such as a cut or scrape, increases the risk of infection. For example, a person with cuts on their feet is more likely to develop a verruca from visiting public swimming pools.
The transmission risk of warts is low in adults and higher in children and infants. People with a compromised or suppressed immune system have a higher risk for contracting an HPV strain leading to warts. Other transmissible HPV strains can lead to cervical, anal, penile, and vulvovaginal cancer.
But these are not the strains that cause genital warts, although a person may carry and transmit multiple strains at once. Warts typically disappear independently, so maintaining good hygiene and helping prevent further infection is an important first step in self-remedies. Products containing salicylic acid are available for home use. A person may be able to treat warts effectively using OTC products. Some people may recommend other remedies , such as putting duct tape on warts and certain forms of hypnosis.
But these remedies are purely anecdotal and have no medical benefit nor support. A person can help reduce their risk for catching or spreading warts. Warts are abnormal growths on the skin.
They occur when an HPV strain infects the skin and causes rapid cell growth. Warts are common and often harmless, but they may lead to feelings of embarrassment. Warts can occur anywhere on the body and can appear as hardened lumps, flat circular patches, or thread-like protrusions. How are warts diagnosed? How are they treated? But if you have warts that are painful or spreading, or if you are bothered by the way they look, your treatment choices include: Using a home treatment such as salicylic acid or duct tape.
You can get these without a prescription. Putting a stronger medicine on the wart, or getting a shot of medicine in it. Freezing the wart cryotherapy. Removing the wart with surgery electrosurgery, curettage, laser surgery. Health Tools Health Tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health. Decision Points focus on key medical care decisions that are important to many health problems. Warts: Should I Treat Warts?
Cause A wart develops when a human papillomavirus HPV infects the outer layer of skin and causes the skin cells to grow rapidly. Can common warts on hands or fingers be spread to the genitals and cause genital warts?
But common warts don't cause the type of genital warts that lead to high-risk cancers. Symptoms Warts occur in a variety of shapes and sizes. Common warts usually appear singly or in groups on the hands, although they may grow on any part of the body. They usually are rough, gray-brown, dome-shaped growths.
Plantar warts can develop on any part of the foot. As the callus and wart get larger, walking can become painful, much like walking with a pebble in your shoe. When pressure from standing or walking pushes a plantar wart beneath the skin's surface, a layer of thick, tough skin similar to a callus develops over it. Sometimes dark specks are visible beneath the surface of the wart. Flat warts are usually found on the face, arms, or legs.
They are small usually smaller than the eraser on the end of a pencil. There are usually several in one area. They have flat tops and can be pink, light brown, or light yellow. Flat warts are often spread by shaving. Filiform warts , a kind of flat wart, can grow around the mouth, nose, and beard area.
The surface of this type of wart has many flesh-colored, finger-shaped growths. Periungual warts are found under and around the toenails and fingernails.
They appear as rough, irregular bumps. What Happens Human papillomaviruses can live on healthy skin without causing infection.
A wart can take many months to grow before it becomes visible. Warts, particularly newer ones, are easily spread. They can spread to other parts of the body or to other people. Plantar warts can be pushed beneath the skin's surface by pressure from standing and walking. A thickening of the skin slowly forms over most of the wart and looks and feels like a callus.
Periungual warts can affect nail growth. It may be hard to get rid of warts after they develop. But they generally go away on their own within months or years. Just before warts disappear on their own, they may turn black. Your age. Warts occur most often in children and young adults. As you get older, you may find that you get fewer warts or that your warts go away. Walking barefoot on moist surfaces, as in public showers and locker rooms and around swimming pool areas.
Sharing towels, razors, and other personal items with a person who has warts. Biting your nails or cuticles. Wearing closed or tight shoes that cause sweaty feet.
When To Call See your doctor if: You aren't sure if a skin growth is a wart. If you are older than age 60 and have never had warts, consider seeing your family doctor or other health professional to check for skin cancer. Nonprescription home treatment isn't successful after 2 to 3 months. Warts are growing or spreading rapidly despite treatment. Signs of bacterial infection develop, including: Increased pain, swelling, redness, tenderness, or heat.
Red streaks extending from the area. Discharge of pus. A plantar wart becomes too painful to walk on. You have diabetes or peripheral arterial disease and you need treatment for a wart on a leg or foot.
You have warts on your genitals or around the anus. For more information, see the topic Genital Warts. Watchful waiting Watchful waiting is a period of time during which you and your doctor observe your symptoms or condition without using medical treatment.
Who to see Warts can be diagnosed and treated by most health professionals, including: Nurse practitioners. Physician assistants. Family medicine doctors. Exams and Tests Warts are usually diagnosed based only on their appearance. Treatment Overview Not all warts need to be treated. You may decide to treat a wart if it is: Painful. Easily irritated.
Growing or spreading to other parts of your body or to other people. Treating the warts yourself Many people don't treat warts unless they are unsightly or painful. You can treat warts yourself with: Salicylic acid. Duct tape tape occlusion.
Getting treatment from your doctor Your doctor can treat warts with: Cryotherapy. For more information, see Other Treatment. If your child develops scabies, everyone in your household will need treatment. Follow this advice to treat everyone safely and effectively. We're helping you achieve YourHealthiestSkin from head to toe. Use these tips from dermatologists to keep all your skin looking and feeling its best. AAD Shade Structures provide permanent outdoor shade in areas that are not protected from the sun.
When it comes to treating the skin, plenty of people say they have expertise. Only a board-certified dermatologist has these credentials. If someone in your family gets a wart, you can help it go away more quickly and prevent new warts from developing. Treat the wart.
When someone has a healthy immune system, a wart will often go away on its own. This can take a long time, though. In the meantime, the virus that causes warts can spread to other parts of the body, which may lead to more warts. Treatment can help a wart clear more quickly. You can buy effective wart treatment without a prescription. When treating a wart, dermatologists recommend that you: Cover your wart.
This helps prevent the virus from spreading to other parts of the body, and to other people. Wash your hands immediately after touching the wart. This also helps to prevent spreading the virus to other parts of the body and to other people. For those who clear the HPV infection, there is a chance of contracting an infection from the same strain or a different one. You could even contract an infection of multiple strains at the same time, though this is less common.
So even with treatment, genital warts may come back in the future. Some strains are high risk and associated with later formation of squamous cell carcinoma cancer , and you may not even know if you have a high-risk HPV strain until precancerous or cancerous lesions form. Some research shows that HPV infections persist latently in 10 to 20 percent of those who contract them, as opposed to the 80 to 90 percent who clear the virus within two years of infection.
However, certain factors increase the risk of the infection not going away. These include having sex without protection, contracting other sexually transmitted infections STIs , alcohol use, smoking tobacco, and having a suppressed immune system. A recent study published in December noted that over genetically distinct strains of HPV exist. The study looked at HPV infection in unvaccinated men between the ages of 18 and Researchers tracked over 4, subjects over five years.
What the study found was that HPV infection strongly increases the risk of future infection by the same strain. The researchers focused on strain 16, which is responsible for most HPV-related cancers. They noted that an initial infection increases the one year probability of reinfection by a factor of 20, and the probability of reinfection remains 14 times higher two years later.
The researchers found that this increased risk occurs in men regardless of whether they are sexually active. The CDC also suggests condom use and limiting the number of sexual partners as ways to lower risk of contracting an HPV infection. As well, the organization recommends vaccination at a younger age to help protect against the strains that cause the majority of warts and cancer. HPV symptoms take a while to show, so warts may not appear until weeks or months after infection.
In some cases, genital warts can take years to develop. Outbreaks can happen in or around the vagina or anus, on the cervix, in the groin or thigh area, or on the penis or scrotum.
HPV can also cause warts on your throat, tongue, mouth, or lips. For some people, genital warts may clear up on their own within two years , but treatment helps speed up the process. Genital warts can be treated by a doctor in a number of ways. Topical treatments, prescription medications, and minor procedures can help clear up an outbreak. Genital warts require a special type of topical treatment that your doctor can.
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