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We can travel to the moon, to Mars, to Venus, to Jupiter. We can annihilate polio, smallpox, syphilis, malaria, and scores of other disease entities. But we still cannot eradicate the common virus that’s responsible for warts.
ver 25 million people in this country have warts. The common myth that handling frogs or toads causes them is, of course, only a myth. Frogs and toads have their own problems. Warts are growths on the skin caused by members of the human papillomavirus family. These viral growths should be destroyed because they are contagious, unsightly, and occasionally painful.
You can pass warts on to others by direct or indirect contact, in such places as locker rooms, public shower stalls, gymnasium mats, and swimming pools. Very often, members of the same household are afflicted with warts. They can also spread on the same person by picking, scratching, shaving, or biting ones nails.
Warts come in many shapes and sizes and can turn up on different parts of the body. The so-called common wart is a raised, rough, grayish-looking, painless growth. It can vary in size from a pinhead to a fairly large mass. While they may occur on any portion of the skin surface and mucous membranes, common warts are usually found on the fingers, hands, and soles of the feet.
Flat warts are smooth, flesh-colored, and slightly elevated. These matchhead-sized growths usually appear on the face and backs of hands of children and young adults. Genital warts are found in the moist areas of the genital and anal regions. Warts on the sole are called plantar warts. (Not “planter’s warts,” as some people are fond of saying, as if there were something agricultural or occupational about them.) These warts are the most stubborn variety and frequently resist all known treatments.
That there are dozens of widely proclaimed methods to eliminate warts attests to the fact that there is no single predictably effective remedy. Ideally, the treatment should be quick, safe, and painless. And it should produce no unsightly or lasting scars.
Some doctors recommend that the best way to manage warts is to let them manage themselves. If left untreated, many warts will disappear by themselves in about two years. This seems to be the natural history of warts. Warty people, however, may not want to wait for any spontaneous cure, and so they seek medical advice.
Methods that physicians use to treat warts are about as varied as warts themselves. The type of treatment your doctor uses will depend upon your age, the location of your warts, and the size and number of warts to be treated.
In electrosurgery, the wart is burned off with an electric needle under a local anesthetic. Warts also can be chemically destroyed using various types of acids, plasters, and other chemicals. Other warts can be frozen off using liquid nitrogen at minus 320° Fahrenheit. Still other warts succumb to surgical excision (cutting the wart out under local anesthesia).
Some dermatologists paint on a drug called cantharidin. After the application of this “blister beetle” remedy, a swelling forms under the wart in a week or ten days, and the dermatologist can then trim away the dead part of this blister roof, often removing the remainder of the wart with it.
One of the latest modes of therapy for large or stubborn warts is the pulsed dye laser, which selectively destroys the nutrient-providing blood vessels that support the infected cells that carry the wart virus to the lower layers of the skin. Another relatively new treatment calls for injections of an anti-cancer drug, called bleomycin, into each of the warts. These injections are, unfortunately, somewhat painful and expensive.
Genital and anal warts – reported to be one of the fastest growing sexually-transmitted diseases in the world – are usually transmitted by sexual contact and it is essential to treat the patient’s sexual partner to prevent recurrences. These venereal-type warts respond to podophyllin – a resinous substance that a physician paints on the warty growths at weekly intervals, and to a relatively new cream – an Immune Response Modifier – called imiquimod (Aldara) that patients apply on their own. Women with genital warts have an increased risk of cancer of the cervix and, therefore, should be treated and closely followed.
Some doctors (and some grandmothers) charm warts away by suggestive methods. These “witching” methods have worked in many individuals, particularly young, impressionable children, and they leave no scars, no matter how deep or long-standing the warts may have been. Regardless of how bizarre or ludicrous a treatment may sound, if the patient has faith in the “charmer,” the warts usually will disappear. (However, I do not recommend stealing a piece of beef or a dishrag!)
A great deal of research is going on to determine why certain people get warts, why others do not, and why warts often disappear spontaneously. In the meantime, if you can’t ward off warts, take comfort in knowing that your doctor can help you get rid of them.
Treating Warts
For small, flat warts of the face and the backs of the hands, ask your pharmacist for the following:
Castor Oil (one ounce)
Directions: Apply to warts twice daily using a cotton-tipped applicator (Q-Tip).
For the common type of warts on your fingers, palms, feet, and other areas, use any of the folllowing:
Occlusal-HP, Compound W, Dr. Scholl’s Wart Medicine or any number of over-the-counter varnishes or pads, all of which contain varying amounts of salicylic acid.
Directions: Apply as directed on the package.
Some dermatologists have been reporting good success with the nightly application of Aldara (see above) for the treatment of common warts of the fingers and soles.
There are also some reports of Tagamet (cimetidine) pills getting rid of warts in children, but you should consult with either your dermatologist or pediatrician to find out whether this mode is appropriate for your youngster and what the dosage should be.
For stubborn warts around and under the fingernails, use the following method that I call “ducto-therapy”: Get a roll of shiny, electrical (duct) tape and cut it in strips of one inch.
Completely wrap the wart with 2 “layers” of the duct tape. (See Figure) Make it airtight. Do not wrap too tightly. Leave on for 6½ days. Remove for half a day. Repeat the entire procedure – 6½ days on, ½ day off. After several weeks, the wart becomes smaller, soft and mushy, gets “tired,” and disappears, leaving no scar. Treat only one digit at a time; the largest first.
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| TREATING DIMPLE WARTS |
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Since dimple warts are viral tumors, it is often difficult to get rid of them with anything except surgical or freezing techniques used by a dermatologist. The following preparations, however, may help destroy an “early” wart:
Compound W
Wart Medicine (Dr. Scholl ‘s)
Directions: Apply once daily -- very carefully -- to the top of each dimple wart. Stop if irritation occurs.
If, after a couple of weeks, the warts show no sign of budging or if new lesions have appeared, see your dermatologist.
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