How to get rid of a wart

How to get rid of a wart

Symptoms indicating the presence of warts

Your child: has one or more small, rough, well-defined growths of skin on the hands, soles of the feet, face, or genital area. Consult the doctor if a wart: persists, multiplies or reappears despite home treatments; is painful; deforms a nail; bleeds, looks infected (there is redness or pus), or spreads to other parts of the body; is located on the soles of the feet and bothers your child when walking.

What is a wart? Warts are small, rough, well-demarcated bumps that form in the skin. They are generally not serious and are not painful in themselves. However, warts can cause pain when they deform a nail or if they are located on the soles of the feet and interfere with walking.

Warts occur due to infection caused by a strain of the human papillomavirus (HPV). This virus enters under the skin by taking advantage of a small wound or crack, or even a blister. If it is not neutralized by the immune system, the virus multiplies in the superficial layers of the skin in a specific location, most often on the fingers, feet or face, but rarely on other parts of the body. Warts appear isolated or in mosaic, that is to say, in the form of several small warts grouped together.

Age: Children and adolescents are particularly affected. Adults can also get a wart, although it is less common. Duration of the disease:

In more than 60% of cases, warts disappear without treatment after a few months, generally in less than 2 years.

Contagion: The virus causing warts is contagious. But the warts themselves are generally moderately so. A word of advice: still tell your child to avoid scratching their wart so as not to spread the virus to their body. Also tell him to wash his hands after touching it.

Mode of transmission: A wart can be transmitted directly (from skin to skin) or indirectly (by objects that have been in contact with infected skin). Wet floors in swimming pools, public showers, beaches and sports centres particularly contribute to the transmission of plantar warts.

Incubation period: It can take 2 months to 1 year between exposure to the virus and the appearance of warts. Sometimes the virus can remain dormant for several years as if it were sleeping waiting to be awakened.

How to treat warts? In general, warts do not require special care and often disappear on their own, without leaving a trace. It is therefore usually not necessary to treat them.
In certain cases, however, the doctor may decide to treat a wart if, for example, it is aesthetically bothersome or if it is painful. Likewise, treatment of warts is often recommended in immunocompromised patients. Most treatments require several sessions, and no results are guaranteed.
The products most used to treat warts in children are salicylic acid, which burns the wart, and liquid nitrogen, which destroys it by freezing it (cryotherapy). Both of these methods can cause discomfort and pain, and leave a scar. If these treatments are ineffective, the doctor may suggest electrocautery followed by curettage or laser treatment. However, this method is rarely used in children.
There is no one treatment superior to another. It is perseverance in treatments that will allow you to get rid of a wart. The plantar wart is particularly resistant. Sometimes you have to try several treatments before solving the problem. However, other warts may reappear later.

Home Treatment of warts: If your child's wart does not require medical treatment, and you want to try to make it disappear, you can. Use an anti-wart product based on salicylic acid. However, even if the product is available over the counter in pharmacies, it is important to always consult a doctor before using it.

The doctor will be able to confirm that it is indeed a wart and explain to you the correct way to use this product; apply duct tape to the wart. The results of clinical trials are mixed: some indicate that this treatment is effective, while others demonstrate the opposite

Either way, it is simple, inexpensive and does not cause any side effects (it only causes minor skin irritation in some children). This treatment consists of keeping the wart always covered with a small piece of duct tape, which is replaced as needed. At the end of each week, the tape is removed overnight. Treatment should be continued until the wart disappears.

This can take a few weeks, sometimes 2 months. For aesthetic and practical reasons, it is better not to apply this treatment to a wart located on the face.

You should never try to remove a wart with a sharp instrument, such as a razor blade or knife: it risks becoming infected, bleeding and spreading, in addition to leaving a scar.

How to prevent warts? To prevent plantar warts, insist that your child wear shoes or beach shoes (slippers) in gyms and public showers and around swimming pools.

Make sure your child washes their hands after touching their wart.

Tell him to avoid using the towels and wash cloths of someone with a wart. Avoid reusing a file or pumice stone that has been used to scrub a wart.

If you are working in a kitchen, use your owns gloves to be sure that nobody else be in touch.  Change it every new work time.   

 

 

Others things to know:

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a possible cause of cancer?  A few specific strains of HPV are associated with cervical cancer and, to a lesser extent, cancers of the vulva, vagina, penis and anus.

These particular strains of HPV can also cause condyloma (genital warts). However, the strains of HPV that cause common warts are not associated with cancer.


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On Jem-wellness.com, whose niche is health and well-being, you got a lot of products in the Health Care catalogue that will help, and we sell gloves for kitchen use too. They are not expensive and very easy and good to use.   

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