You know this little hard tumor that you have had on your hand or leg somewhere in your childhood (or even now). Warts! Everybody knows it, everybody’s seen it and everybody’s had it at some time. What exactly is it and why does it appear? Let’s try to find out.
What are warts and how do they look like?
A wart is small tumor, located on some part of your body, mainly on hands and feet, that is caused by warts virus - human papilloma virus (or simply HPV). They are usually painless, do not disturb you (except those that are located in areas that are often touched ). You may be infected by warts virus and do not even know about it, as you may have no warts (tests can help to identify the virus).
· Common (Verruca vulgaris)
Warts that are located mainly on hands and fingers (but can also be found on elbows and knees). They are slightly grey in color (sometimes even brown), if you look attentively you can note little black dots inside of the rough tumor – roots. Common warts are most spread in children.
· Flat (Verruca plana)
Warts that are found in places you frequently shave (face, neck, knees; sometimes on hands and wrists). They have the same color as your skin (or slightly yellow), very smooth (that’s why hey are called ‘flat’) and often occur on your body in large numbers or clusters. They can be found in children as well (generally on faces)
· Plantar (Verruca pedis)
Warts that are found mainly on your feet. They are usually painful, as are located on your soles, so they are touched every time you walk. Wart has a color of your flesh with black dots in its center. If there are several plantar warts on your feet or hands they are usually called mosaic warts.
· Digitate
A wart that looks like little stick or finger. You’ve certainly seen it near someone’s eyelid , nose or lip. Has a color of your skin. It is sometimes called filiform wart.
· Genital (Venereal wart)
Warts that are considered to be a sexually transmitted disease. They are small tumor located on (or near) your genitalia.
A wart is a skin infection that is caught as any virus through the contact. Through the contact with an infected skin (not through holding a frog or some other not related objects). But you may touch somebody’s wart and won’t be infected. That’s because it prefers warm and moist places, so it generally infects such places as hands, fingers and feet (especially where cuts and scratches are!). Tiny little scratches (when your child bites his or her fingernail) are of a high risk. It can also grow inside your mouth, on your genitals and on your rectal area.
It can be caught not only through the skin of infected person, but also through the towels, shoes, nails scissors and other infected moist or warm objects and surfaces. Bad news is that you can also infect yourself (and spread warts from one part of your body to another through the same objects or just with your hands). Especially if you pick or disturb your wart (this concerns children a lot). But good news is that you may happen to be more naturally resistant to different warts viruses than others, so you won’t get a wart so easily (or won’t get it at all even after the contact).
As it was said before, you may touch a wart or some other infected object and don’t get infected thanks to your natural ‘wart resistance’. Otherwise, you will get a wart depending on virus it was caused by. A wart may appear just after the infection or in some weeks (and even months). It usually takes some time to develop, and depends on the type of wart and of way you caught it.
There are several ways of treating warts that have rather positive effects. In addition, warts can simply disappear on their own after some time. The reasons are unclear, but who cares.
Valentyna Ant.
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