Medical Hub

Warts are embarrassing and cause itching, pain and embarrassment. For those seeking relief from warts this article aims to educate you on what causes warts, what warts look like and what your options are for treatment.

Warts are growths on the skin caused when cells in the outer layer of skin are infected by the human papillomavirus (HPV). The virus replicates within the cells causing the cells to grow rapidly. Enclosed in a protein envelope, viruses contain a basic string of DNA. When infected by a virus, a cell in your body creates virus cells instead of making the things the cell needs to survive. The virus replicates inside the host cell until the host cell ruptures and releases the new virus cells. Warts are spread through touch for this reason.

Descriptions of some common wart types:

o A raised lump having a rough surface and resembling cauliflower, the common wart is most often found on the knees and hands.

o Common on the face, near eyelids and the lips, filiform warts look fingers or threads as they are long and thin.

o Common on the face, neck and hands, flat warts appear as flat smooth bumps which are flesh colored.

o A plantar wart is a hard, dark, and usually painful lump most commonly found on the soles of the feet.

o A genital wart is a wart occurring on the genitals.

Warts are treated generally the same regardless of the type. Treatment options include removal of the wart tissue with acids, killing the cells of the wart by freezing them, burning the wart with a laser, administering a topical medication to stimulate the bodies immune response, surgical removal of the wart and various other alternative treatments. The above treatment options all have different success rates and researches are learning more about the various alternative treatments and some show a lot of promise.

If you have a wart that has not responded to treatment, or comes back shortly after treatment, you are encouraged to look into other treatment options as everyone reacts differently to a given treatment. The key to riding yourself of the pain, irritation or embarrassment of warts is to be persistent. You can be wart free so don’t give up!

About the Author

Brian McNay is the author of the article and can provide more information on the subject.

Check out my blog for a look on the lighter side of wart treatment with some very odd treatment methods!

Tags : skin disease, virus, warts