There was a minor incident during the second week of treatment. Another child had knocked into the dying wart and caused part of it to come off. The pain was excruciating and my son was having problem sleeping for two nights as the wart was still attached to the skin and causing constant pain.
Visual Guide to Warts
These small, noncancerous growths appear when your skin is infected with one of the many viruses of the human papillomavirus (HPV) family. The virus triggers extra cell growth, which makes the outer layer of skin thick and hard in that spot. While they can grow anywhere you have skin, you’re more likely to get one on your hands or feet. The type of wart depends on where it is and what it looks like.
Who Gets Them?
2/21
Because each person’s immune system responds differently to the virus, not everyone who comes in contact with HPV will get a wart. And if you cut or damage your skin in some way, it’s easier for the virus to take hold. That’s why people with chronic skin conditions, such as eczema, or who bite their nails or pick at hangnails are prone to getting warts.
Your Body Plays Defense
3/21
Kids and teens get more warts than adults because their immune systems haven’t built up defenses against the many types of HPV. People with weakened immune systems — like those with HIV or who are taking biologic drugs for conditions like RA, psoriasis, and IBD — are also more susceptible to getting warts because their body may not be able to fight them off.
How They Spread
4/21
Warts are highly contagious and are mainly passed by direct skin contact, such as when you pick at your warts and then touch another area of your body. You can also spread them with things like towels or razors that have touched a wart on your body or on someone else’s. Warts like moist and soft or injured skin.
Fairy Tales Are Wrong
5/21
You can touch or kiss all the frogs and toads you like because they won’t give you warts.
Having a wart on your nose — or anywhere else, for that matter — doesn’t make you a witch, either.
Common Warts
6/21
These flesh-colored growths are most often on the backs of hands, the fingers, the skin around nails, and the feet. They’re small — from the size of a pinhead to a pea — and feel like rough, hard bumps. They may have black dots that look like seeds, which are really tiny blood clots. Typically they show up where the skin was broken, perhaps from biting your fingernails. (This can also transfer the virus from your hands to your face.)
Plantar Warts
7/21
Does it feel like you have pebbles in your shoe? Check the soles of your feet. These warts got their name because “plantar” means “of the sole” in Latin. Unlike other warts, the pressure from walking and standing makes them grow into your skin. You may have just one or a cluster (called mosaic warts). Because they’re flat, tough, and thick, it’s easy to confuse them with calluses. Look for black dots on the surface.
Flat Warts
8/21
The upside of these warts is that they’re smaller (maybe 1/8 inch wide, the thickness of the cord that charges your phone) and smoother than other types. The downside? They tend to grow in large numbers — often 20 to 100 at a time. Flat warts tend to appear on children’s faces, men’s beard areas, and women’s legs.
Filiform Warts
9/21
These fast-growing warts look thread-like and spiky, sometimes like tiny brushes. Because they tend to grow on the face — around your mouth, eyes, and nose — they can be annoying, even though they don’t usually hurt.
Genital Warts
10/21
As you might expect, you get these by having sex with someone who has them. They may look like small, scattered, skin-colored bumps or like a cluster of bumps similar to a little bit of cauliflower on your genitals. And they can spread, even if you can’t see them. Don’t try to get rid of genital warts yourself; they can be hard to treat.
Other types of HPV that could cause cancer may be passed sexually, too, including through oral and anal sex.
How Long They Last
11/21
Over time, your body will often build up a resistance and fight warts off. But it may take months or as many as 2 years for them to disappear. In adults, warts often stick around even longer, perhaps several years or more. Some warts won’t ever go away. Doctors aren’t sure why some do and others don’t.
To Treat or Not to Treat?
12/21
Most warts are harmless, and you don’t need to do anything — unless, of course, they’re painful or embarrassing. Waiting for warts to go away could backfire, though: A wart might get bigger, new warts may appear, or you could give them to someone else. The best treatment depends on your age and health and the type of wart. But there’s no cure for HPV, so some of the virus might stay in your skin after the wart is gone and reappear later.
Peeling Products
13/21
Over-the-counter gels, liquids, and pads with salicylic acid work by peeling away the dead skin cells of the wart to gradually dissolve it. For better results, soak the wart in warm water, then gently sand it with a disposable emery board before you apply the product. Be sure to use a new emery board each time. Be patient — it can take several months.
Duct Tape
14/21
Yes, you may be able to get a remedy for warts at the hardware store! Study results are mixed, but covering warts with duct tape may peel away layers of skin and irritate it to kick-start your immune system. Soak, sand, and put duct tape on the area (use silver stuff because it’s stickier). Remove and re-do the process every 5-6 days until the wart is gone. If it works for you, the wart should be gone within 4 weeks.
When to See the Doctor
15/21
If you’re not sure your skin growth is a wart (some skin cancers look like them), it doesn’t get better with home treatment, it hurts, or you have a lot of them, check with your doctor. If you have diabetes or a weakened immune system, you should have a doctor take a look before you treat a wart yourself.
Cryosurgery
16/21
For adults and older children with common warts, your doctor will likely want to freeze them off with liquid nitrogen. (Because the nitrogen is so cold, it can cause a stabbing pain for a little while, which is why it’s not used for small children.) You’ll probably need more than one session. It works better when you follow up with a salicylic acid treatment after the area heals. Cryosurgery can cause light spots on people who have dark skin.
Cantharidin
17/21
“Painting” a wart with this liquid makes a blister form underneath it, lifting it off the skin. When the blister dries (after about a week), the wart comes off with the blistered skin. Cantharidin is often the way to treat young children because it doesn’t hurt at first, though it may tingle, itch, burn, or swell a few hours later.
Burning and Cutting
18/21
Doctors may use one or both of these methods after they numb the area.
Electrosurgery burns the wart with an electric charge through the tip of a needle. It’s good for common warts, filiform warts, and foot warts. Your doctor could also use a laser.
Curettage is scraping off the wart with a sharp knife or small, spoon-shaped tool. Another option is excision, slicing the wart off or cutting it out with a sharp blade.
Prescription Creams
19/21
For stubborn warts, peeling creams with glycolic acid, stronger salicylic acid, or tretinoin could do the trick. Diphencyprone (DCP) and imiquimod (Aldara) irritate your skin to encourage your immune system to go to work there. 5-Fluorouracil is a cancer medicine that may stop your body from making extra skin cells the same way it stops tumors from growing.
Injections
20/21
Your doctor may use a needle to put medicine into the wart to help get rid of it. Bleomycin, a cancer drug, may stop infected cells from making more. Interferon boosts your immune system to better fight the HPV, typically for genital warts.
These usually aren’t the first things your doctor will try, and you may need to use salicylic acid or duct tape on your wart, too.
Stop the Spread
21/21
There’s no way yet to prevent warts, but you can lower your chances of getting or spreading them:
- Don’t touch, pick, or scratch your warts, or touch someone else’s.
- Wash your hands after treating warts.
- Keep foot warts dry.
- Wear waterproof sandals or flip-flops in public showers, locker rooms, and around public pools.
Show Sources
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American Academy of Dermatology: “Warts: Overview,” “Dermatologists share tips to treat common warts,” “Where warts come from.”
UpToDate: “Cutaneous warts (common, plantar, and flat warts),” “Patient education: Skin warts (Beyond the Basics).”
Mona Gohara, MD, clinical professor of dermatology, Yale School of Medicine.
Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care: “Warts: Overview.”
JAMA Dermatology: “Witches and Warts.”
Cleveland Clinic: “Plantar Warts.”
University Health Service, University of Southampton: “Curettage and shave excision of raised skin lesions.”
DermNet New Zealand: “Bleomycin and the skin.”
BMC Infectious Diseases: “Interferon for the treatment of genital warts: a systematic review.”
Effective Treatment: Common Wart on Finger
When something like a wart grows on your child’s finger most parents will go berserk.
Common wart happens to 30% of the children. And they will go away eventually but some warts will not.
Human papilloma viruses (HPV).
Human papilloma viruses (HPV) are responsible for causing the warts. And there are a lot of different types of warts but what we are looking at is the Common Wart.
Wart is contagious and can spread, so you should take the standard precautions.
My daughter had wart on her finger once and we gotten rid of it using home remedies we acquired from the village. So this time round we thought we might want to try the orthodox way. We went to our GP in the neighbourhood.
A external treatment cream was given but that didn’t have any effect on the wart. So we went to the pharmacist to buy some more virus cream and those didn’t work as well.
So we went to our son’s child specialist and in less than 2 minutes we were out of consultation. He was immediately referred to another skin specialist in Mount Elisabeth. No medication was prescribed and $80 poorer we decide to go the home remedy way.
One-two Punch
The last time as a passed down home remedies from the village, we used the sap of green papaya to treat the common wart on my daughter’s finger. Basically you just need to go to the market and buy a green papaya. Once home you extract the sap from the papaya and apply directly to the wart.
This time round we decided to use Duofilm as well. Duofilm is a topical medication used to remove warts and to treat psoriasis. You can get it from Guardian for $13.90.
Initial condition before treatment
We used papaya sap during the day, and apply it every few hours. During the night we would use Duofilm, once after shower, and once just before going to bed.
One thing to note is that you should try to keep the wart from getting wet during shower. Once wet it will dilute the treatment and lessen the effectiveness.
A week after home treatment
A week after our home treatment the wart seemed to be dying. It was also getting the most itch so it is paramount that you child don’t scratch it and caused the fingers on the other hand to be infected.
A minor incident. Someone knocked onto the dying wart.
There was a minor incident during the second week of treatment. Another child had knocked into the dying wart and caused part of it to come off. The pain was excruciating and my son was having problem sleeping for two nights as the wart was still attached to the skin and causing constant pain.
We had to persuade him to continue with the treatment as the papaya sap and Duofilm were painful when applied. But he was such a brave boy.
A few days later
Part of the wart fell off after the continuous papaya sap and Duofilm treatment. And a white crust had formed. But we knew it ain’t over till the entire wart die and falls off. The wart is like some parasites that lives on the surface while sustaining itself through the skin.
And by week 3 of relentless treatment day and night, the wart died and fell off the finger. Leaving a tender new skin. 😌
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Family Medicine
In 2024 our team of doctors and nurses provide a comprehensive range of family planning services. Our doctors have expertise in antenatal care, preconception planning, and STD checks. Contraceptive advice including Mirena and Implanon insertion is available.
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Our practice is dedicated to treating a wide spectrum of women’s health concerns. We offer pre-natal, antenatal and postnatal care, contraceptive options, pap screening, and preventative health care advice. We provide assistance, advice and support through all stages of life, recognising the many issues many women may face from adolescence through to the peri and post-menopausal period.
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We encourage men to present routinely to their GP to discuss all aspects of their health. We provide comprehensive advice and support for men to address the prevention and management of various health conditions. This may include assessments for cardiovascular risk, diabetes, cancer prevention, mental health assessments, STD screening, sports injuries and the importance of sleep as it relates to other areas of health.
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