My 6 year old nephew, Jackson asked if he would get warts from playing and kissing frogs.  After an internal struggle to tease him a bit, I answered honestly with a simple, “No.” 

 

Warts are growths on skin caused by the human papillomaviruses (HPVs).  Warts can be spread through person-to-person contact, spreading from one part of body to another, sharing personal items like towels and razors, public shower floors.  However, person to person spreading of warts is uncommon. 

 

Genital warts, on the other hand, are very contagious and are spread by having sex with a person with genital warts. 

 

There are many different kinds of warts.

 

1.     Common warts are usually found on your hands, fingers and sometime face.

2.     Periungual and subungual warts are found under and around nails.  People who bite nails and cuticles are more at risk for these kinds of warts

3.     Flat warts can occur on the face, neck, wrists, knees and hands.  These are most common in kids

4.     Plantar warts are found on the bottom of the feet.   These warts are often picked up in public shower areas, which is why it is good to wear shower shoes. 

5.     Genital warts occur on the genital and anal areas. Genital warts are a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by some strains of HPV.  Other strains can lead to cervical and vulvar cancer (there is a vaccine Gardasil available).

 

Warts will often go away without treatment but it can take months to years for this to happen.  Patients with genital warts, wide spread warts, warts on face, painful plantar warts and patients with diabetes or HIV should see their physician and not self-treat.

 

Your physician can treat by removing them with surgery, injections, freezing or prescription medicine (such as Aldara).

 

If you are a candidate for self treatment, you have a few options of your own:

 

1.     Topical salicylic acid (40%) is available OTC.  It is best to soak the wart in warm water for a few minutes first.  Then apply the salicylic acid solution to the wart and allow to dry.  It will work better if you put tape or a band-aid over the wart.  Conveniently, Dr. Scholl’s has a product that is a band-aid with salicylic acid in it.

 

This should be done every day.  You should see improvement in 1-2 weeks but it may take as long as 12 weeks to remove the wart. 

 

2.     Freezing the wart off works faster but can hurt for a bit.  In the past, this was only available at the physician’s office but now it is available at home as products such as Dr. Scholl’s Freeze Away and Compound W Freeze Off.  The kits come with a canister of dimethyl ether and propane (the freezing stuff) that you apply to the wart for about 30-40 seconds (follow package instructions).   The area will heal over the next 2 weeks.  If the wart is not fully removed you can repeat the procedure.  If it doesn’t work after 2 or 3 treatments, you may want to go see your physician.

 

Helpful hint: You can freeze the wart then use the salicylic acid daily for 2 weeks for those stubborn warts.

 

3.     Tagamet (cimetidine), a drug usually used to treat sour stomach, is sometimes used to treat warts.  It has better results in children. The dose is 30mg/kg up to 300mg three times day for 2 months.  Cimetidine interacts with a lot of drugs and can have some odd side effects so you can ask us or consult your local pharmacist about your particular case.

 

4.     Duct tape has been researched as a possible treatment for warts.  The studies had the kids soak the wart in warm water, lightly pumice then place duct tape over the area and repeat every 24 hours.  It has had some good results without pain. 

 

So feel free to kiss all the frogs you like but wear those shower shoes!

If you or your kids have warts, I am sure you have other questions- mark us as a favorite and leave us a comment.  We really want to hear from you! 

nova@getpharmacyadvice.com