Warts are skin growths that are caused by a virus called human papillomavirus also known as HPV which infects the top layer of the skin. It enters the human body in an area where there is a broken skin and the virus will cause the layer on top of the skin to grow rapidly and eventually form a wart.
Warts can spread by a direct contact with the human papillomavirus and infect a person by touching the wart then touching other parts of the body. It can also infect others by sharing razors, sharing towels and other personal belongings. Take note that it can take up to months of slow growth under the skin before a wart appears.
[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guJ1J7rRs1w”]Warts appears in a variety of shapes and sizes such as a bump with a rough surface, flat and smooth. There are tiny blood vessels that supplies blood to the core of the warts and these blood vessels appears like dark dots found in the center of the warts.
Warts are painless but if a wart occurs in a spot where a person puts pressure such as the fingers or bottom part of the foot, it can cause pain.
Causes
When a human papillomavirus infects the outer layer of the skin, a wart will grow and causes the skin cells to rapidly grow. It can spread to other parts of the body, causing additional warts. Some warts thrive in warm and damp areas such as showers, floor of locker rooms and swimming pool areas.
A person can easily be infected by a wart if he/she has a broken skin like a cut, a bitten nail, a hangnail and a scrape. Swimmers are more susceptible to warts caused by damp feet, a scratch or broken skin by rough surfaces in the swimming pool. People handling meat, fish and poultry are also susceptible of acquiring warts. If you want to learn more about warts, click here.
Symptoms
- Common warts usually appear alone or in groups found in the hands but they can also grow in any parts of the body. These are coarse, gray-brown in color and dome-like growths.
- Plantar warts develop in any part of the foot and walking can cause pain when the warts become larger. The pressure from standing or walking will push the plantar wart below the surface of the skin and a layer of thick and tough skin that looks like callus will grow over it along with dark specks below the surface of the wart.
- Filiform warts are flat warts that grow on the area surrounding the mouth, beard area and the nose.
- Periungual warts grow beneath and around the fingernails and toenails. They are rough and have irregular bumps.
Treatment and home remedies
- An effective way of treating warts is using salicylic acid. The treatment takes 2 to 3 months.
- Covering the wart with tape occlusion or duct tape that takes 1 to 2 months of treatment.
Prevention
Avoid sharing of personal belongings with other people such as razors, socks, towels or shoes as well as avoiding touching of warts of other people.
Do not walk barefoot on public showers, locker rooms and around swimming pool areas.