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Small, rough growth resembling a cauliflower or a solid blister From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Warts are non-cancerous viral growths usually occurring on the hands and feet but which can also affect other locations, such as the genitals or face.[1][3] One or many warts may appear.[3] They are distinguished from cancerous tumors as they are caused by a viral infection, such as a human papillomavirus, rather than a cancer growth.[3]
Wart | |
---|---|
Other names | Verrucae,[1] papillomas[2] |
A large number of warts on the big toe | |
Specialty | Dermatology |
Symptoms | skin growth usually occurring on the hands, feet, or genitals[1][3] |
Duration | Months to years[1] |
Causes | Human papillomavirus[1] |
Risk factors | Public showers and pools, eczema[3] |
Differential diagnosis | Callus, seborrheic keratosis, squamous cell carcinoma[4] |
Prevention | Avoiding skin contact with infected individual, not walking barefoot in public areas, having safe sex or sexual abstinence |
Treatment | Salicylic acid, cryotherapy,[1] surgical removal |
Frequency | Very common[2] |
Factors that increase the risk include the use of public showers and pools, working with meat, eczema, and a weak immune system.[1][3] The virus is believed to infect the host through the entrance of a skin wound.[1] A number of types exist, including plantar warts, "filiform warts", and genital warts.[3] Genital warts are often sexually transmitted.[5]
Without treatment, most types of warts resolve in months to years.[1] A number of treatments may speed resolution, including salicylic acid applied to the skin and cryotherapy.[1] In those who are otherwise healthy, they do not typically result in significant problems.[1] Treatment of genital warts differs from that of other types.[3] Infection of a virus, such as HIV, can cause warts. This is prevented through careful handling of needles or sharp objects that could infect the individual through physical trauma of the skin, plus the practice of safe sex or sexual abstinence. Viruses that are not sexually transmitted, or are not transmitted in the case of a wart, can be prevented through a number of behaviors, such as wearing shoes outdoors and avoiding unsanitized areas without proper shoes or clothing, such as public restrooms or locker rooms.
Warts are very common, with most people being infected at some point in their lives.[2] The estimated current rate of non-genital warts among the general population is 1–13%.[1] They are more common among young people.[1] Prior to widespread adoption of the HPV vaccine, the estimated rate of genital warts in sexually active women was 12%.[5] Warts have been described as far back as 400 BC by Hippocrates.[4]
A range of types of wart have been identified, varying in shape and site affected, as well as the type of human papillomavirus involved.[6][7] These include:
Warts are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). There are about 130 known types of human papillomaviruses.[9] HPV infects the squamous epithelium, usually of the skin or genitals, but each HPV type is typically only able to infect a few specific areas of the body. Many HPV types can produce a benign growth, often called a "wart" or "papilloma", in the area they infect.[10] Many of the more common HPV and wart types are listed below.
Common warts have a characteristic appearance under the microscope. They have thickening of the stratum corneum (hyperkeratosis), thickening of the stratum spinosum (acanthosis), thickening of the stratum granulosum, rete ridge elongation, and large blood vessels at the dermoepidermal junction.[citation needed]
On dermatoscopic examination, warts will commonly have fingerlike or knoblike extensions.[16]
Gardasil 6 is an HPV vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancers and genital warts. Gardasil is designed to prevent infection with HPV types 16, 18, 6, and 11. HPV types 16 and 18 currently cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases,[13][14] and also cause some vulvar, vaginal,[11] penile and anal cancers.[12] HPV types 6 and 11 are responsible for 90% of documented cases of genital warts.[17]
Gardasil 9 protects against HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58.[18]
HPV vaccines do not currently protect against the virus strains responsible for plantar warts (verrucae).[19]
The virus is relatively hardy and immune to many common disinfectants. Exposure to 90% ethanol for at least 1 minute, 2% glutaraldehyde, 30% Savlon, and/or 1% sodium hypochlorite can disinfect the pathogen.[20]
The virus is resistant to drying and heat, but killed by 100 °C (212 °F) temperature and ultraviolet radiation.[20]
There are many treatments and procedures associated with wart removal.[21] A review of various skin wart treatments concluded that topical treatments containing salicylic acid were more effective than placebo.[22] Cryotherapy appears to be as effective as salicylic acid, but there have been fewer trials.[22]
Daily application of the latex of Chelidonium majus is a traditional treatment.[48]
The acrid yellow sap of Greater Celandine is used as a traditional wart remedy.[49]
According to English folk belief, touching toads causes warts; according to a German belief, touching a toad under a full moon cures warts.[50] The most common Northern Hemisphere toads have glands that protrude from their skin that superficially resemble warts. Warts are caused by a virus, and toads do not harbor it.[51] A variety of traditional folk remedies and rituals claim to be able to remove warts.
In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain has his characters discuss a variety of such remedies. Tom Sawyer proposes "spunk-water" (or "stump-water", the water collecting in the hollow of a tree stump) as a remedy for warts on the hand. You put your hand into the water at midnight and say:
Barley-corn, barley-corn, injun-meal shorts,
Spunk-water, spunk-water, swaller these warts
You then "walk away quick, eleven steps, with your eyes shut, and then turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody. Because if you speak the charm's busted." This is given as an example of Huckleberry Finn's planned remedy, which involves throwing a dead cat into a graveyard as a devil or devils comes to collect a recently buried wicked person. Another remedy involved splitting a bean, drawing blood from the wart and putting it on one of the halves, and burying that half at a crossroads at midnight. The theory of operation is that the blood on the buried bean will draw away the wart.[52] Twain is recognized as an early collector and recorder of genuine American folklore.[53]
Similar practices are recorded elsewhere. In Louisiana, one remedy for warts involves rubbing the wart with a potato, which is then buried; when the "buried potato dries up, the wart will be cured".[54] Another remedy similar to Twain's is reported from Northern Ireland, where water from a specific well on Rathlin Island is credited with the power to cure warts.[55]
Surviving ancient medical texts show that warts were a documented disease since at least the time of Hippocrates, who lived c. 460 – c. 370 BC. In the book De Medecia by the Roman physician Aulus Cornelius Celsus, who lived c. 25 BC – c. 50 AD, different types of warts were described. Celsus described Myrmecia, today recognized as plantar wart, and categorized acrochordon (a skin tag) as a wart. In the 13th century, warts were described in books published by the surgeons William of Saliceto and Lanfranc of Milan. The word verruca to describe a wart was introduced by the physician Daniel Sennert, who described warts in his 1636 book Hypomnemata physicae.[56]
The cause of warts was initially disputed in the medical profession. In the early 18th century the physician Daniel Turner, who published the first book on dermatology, suggested that warts were caused by damaged nerves close to the skin. In the mid-18th century, the surgeon John Hunter popularized the belief that warts were caused by a bacterial syphilis infection. The surgeon Benjamin Bell documented that warts were caused by a disease entirely unrelated to syphilis, and established a causal link between warts and cancer. In the 19th century, the chief physician of Verona Hospital established a link between warts and cervical cancer. But in 1874 it was noted by the dermatologist Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra that while various theories were advanced by the medical profession, the "influences causing warts are still very obscure".[56]
In 1907 the physician Giuseppe Ciuffo was the first to demonstrate that warts were caused by a virus infection. In 1976 the virologist Harald zur Hausen was the first to discover that warts were caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). His continuous research established the evidence necessary to develop a HPV vaccine, which first became available in 2006.[56]
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