Warts can occur anywhere on the body but the hands and feet are the most commonly affected areas. Those occurring on the soles of the feet are known as verrucas or plantar warts: they are normal warts which have been pushed inwards by pressure.
Warts on the hands, feet and most other parts of the body are harmless, however genital and anal warts and those sexually transmitted to the mouth are of a different type which can have more serious implications.
Children and the young are more susceptible to hand and feet warts than older people.
Cause of Warts
All warts are caused by human papilloma viruses (HPV). These infect the skin and mucous membranes and cause an increase in production of certain skin cells and this is what gives rise to the characteristic cauliflower-like appearance of many warts.
There are a large number of human papilloma viruses and many individuals become infected at sometime in their lives usually without any symptoms. Most people with a well-functioning immune system will readily clear these infections.
Transmission of Warts
Warts are infective but not highly. In those with good immune systems infection will usually only take place if the skin or mucosa is damaged.
Simple precautions like covering the feet in public baths and not sharing towels will do much to prevent transmission. Warts can be transmitted to other parts of the body so scratching or biting them should be avoided.
Genital Warts
A small sub-group of papilloma viruses produce warts which can lead to cancer if the infection is persistent enough. The best known of these are sub-groups HPV 45, 18,16, 31 which cause almost all cases of cervical cancer. Other types of HPV have been implicated in cancers of throat, penis, mouth, anus and vagina. Most of these viruses are sexually transmitted.
Sexually transmitted warts are treated with removal by cryotherapy, cauterisation, surgical removal or agents such as podophyllin. Vaccines against HPV are now available for young women to help prevent cervical cancer.
Treatment of Hand and Foot Warts
Most warts will disappear without treatment in anything from a few months to a couple of years. For those wanting treatment several methods are available.
- Salicylic acid: preparations containing this can can be bought from a pharmacy. They are applied regularly to the wart. The excess skin caused by the wart is broken down by the acid and eventually the virus itself is destroyed. Usually takes some weeks to get rid of the wart completely.
- Cryotherapy: carried out by a nurse or doctor using liquid nitrogen. Can be painful but is quicker than salicylic acid. Proprietary cold sprays are available from pharmacists which do not use liquid nitrogen but a highly volatile liquid.
- Tape: this has recently been shown to be at least as effective as salicylic acid without the potential for damage to surrounding skin. The wart is covered with waterproof tape for six days. This softens the wart which is then rubbed down with pumice. The process is repeated until the wart has disappeared.
- Hypnosis: this has been used for around seventy years. No one knows how it works but is generally thought to be a placebo effect. A report in the American Journal of Hypnosis gives a little history and a case study.
- Wart charms: perhaps related to hypnosis in some way, these have been used for centuries if not longer. They vary from such things as touching the wart with a piece of meat and then burying the piece or pricking the wart with a needle and then sticking the needle in an ash tree. Use of the charm is often accompanied by a ritual incantation.
This article is for information only. If you have any health concerns you should consult your doctor.
Resources
Successful Repeated Hypnotic Treatment of Warts in the Same Individual: A Case Report. Goldstein. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis April 2005
www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/FolkRemedies.htm
Medicine. Eds. Souhami and Moxham. Pub Churchill Livingstone 2002
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