WARTS AND ALL
How to treat these unsightly skin growths
How to treat a common skin complaint.
CAUSED BY HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS ( HPV) and transmitted via touch or contaminated surfaces, warts are so common that you’re nearly guaranteed to get one over the course of your life. These small, rough skin growths can show up anywhere, but typically affect the face, hands, knees and feet. They’re usually harmless, but can be bothersome and embarrassing.
Part of what makes warts so frustrating is that they can take months or even years to go away on their own – and some never do. If you’re tired of waiting, you could try salicylic acid, which is available in over-the-counter treatment kits. It won’t resolve matters overnight but could speed up the process by eroding the wart a little bit at a time.
Another option is visiting your
doctor or a dermatologist, who can administer more aggressive removal methods such as freezing the wart off with liquid nitrogen or using laser surgery to burn it away.
Particularly obstinate warts might respond to immunotherapies, which aim to give the body’s natural defences the boost needed to suppress the virus. For instance, the chemical diphenylcyclopropenone may be applied to the affected area to trigger a mild reaction and kick the immune system into gear.
Because warts are contagious, until removal is complete, it’s best to practise ‘wart etiquette’ to avoid passing on your infection. Plantar warts, which mostly affect the soles of the feet, are caused by viral strains that thrive and spread in wet environments; therefore, wear thongs or cover your warts with waterproof tape in locker rooms and public swimming pools as well as in the shower.
Don’t share personal items – socks, towels – that come into contact with warts. And resist picking at them, which helps to propagate the underlying viruses. See a doctor if a wart is painful. If it bleeds easily or if it changes colour or appearance, you’ll want to make sure it isn’t skin cancer.
If it is indeed a wart, then it’s ‘just a cosmetic nuisance’, says Dr Colm O’Mahony, a member of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. Feel free to get your lesions treated if they distress you; otherwise, you may choose to just get on with life, warts and all.
However, warts that occur on the groin region – genital warts – are sexually transmitted and require different treatment from other warts. If you think you may have genital warts, see your doctor for treatment, don’t wait for them to go away on their own.