What Are Common Warts and What Causes Common Warts?

Warts are small bumbs of hardened skin. They can show up anywhere on the body, but you''ll usually find them on your hands, feet or face. Kids get them more often than adults do - but some kids never get any warts at all. Warts don''t usually hurt but they can look pretty nasty.

What are common warts?

Warts are small bumbs of hardened skin. They can show up anywhere on the body, but you''ll usually find them on your hands, feet or face. Kids get them more often than adults do - but some kids never get any warts at all. Warts don''t usually hurt but they can look pretty nasty.

These non- cancerous skin growths caused by a viral infection in the top layer of the skin. Viruses that cause warts are called human papillomavirus (HPV). Warts are usually skin-colored and feel rough to the touch, but they can be dark, flat and smooth. The appearance of a wart depends on where it is growing.
There are several different types of warts. For instance, common warts usually develop around sites where there was an injury; flat warts (accompanied by itching) develop on hands; digitate warts have fingerlike projections; filiform warts develop on eyelids, armpits, and necks; and plantar warts develop on the soles of the feet. Genital warts are pink cauliflower-shaped areas that develop on male or female genitalia. If genital warts form in a woman''s cervix, she may be more likely to develop cervical cancer.

Each type of wart is produced by a specific virus. Wart viruses are spread by touch or by contact with the skin shed from a wart.
Common warts are local growths in the skin that are caused by human papillomavirus(HPV) infection. They are generally not contagious.
There are over 100 types of papillomaviruses (HPVs) that infect humans.

What causes common warts?

More than 80 different types of HPV have been identified, and they have tropism (affinity) for different types of body tissue. Most types of HPV have an affinity for the skin and produce common warts (verruca vulgaris), flat warts (verruca plana), and plantar or foot warts (verruca plantaris). Several other types of HPV have an affinity for mucous membranes and some of these cause ano-genital warts (condyloma acuminata).

HPV is passed from person to person by direct or indirect contact, and from one body location to another on the same person. The virus more easily enters the body through an area of skin that is moist, peeling, or cracked.
Warts can occur when HPV invades the body through tiny cuts or breaks in the skin on the bottom of the feet. The virus often is encountered on contaminated surfaces, such as the tile floors of public locker rooms, showers, and swimming pools. Normally, antibodies in the blood destroy HPV, but in some cases, it takes refuge in the skin.

Some other causes of common warts:

Some of the other causes of warts are, people with low immune systems such as those with AID''s, diabetics, cancer patients, transplant patients, elderly people, and children. A cut, or scratch on the hands, or feet can be some of the causes of warts they allow the wart virus to enter the body.

In the home bath room floors, and showers should be cleaned with a disinfectant cleaner. Antibacterial soap is a must in the shower for the whole family to prevent the causes of warts.

Each member of the family should have a pair of thongs to prevent causes of warts. Thongs worn at all times because the wart virus can also thrive in carpets, as well as the grass on the lawn.

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