Warts and verrucas
Preventing warts and verrucas
It's difficult to prevent warts and verrucas completely, but the following measures can help stop them spreading:
- avoidtouching other people's warts wash your hands after touching your own wart
- avoid sharing towels, flannels, shoes and sockswith other people
- keep your feet and hands clean and dry
- change your socks every day
- don't go barefoot in public places
- coverwartsand verrucas with a waterproof plaster or averruca sock when swimming
- avoid scratching or picking atwarts or verrucas this may spread the infection to other parts of your body
- take care when shaving because warts can spread if you cut yourself
Medically Reviewed by a doctor on 21 Dec 2018
Introduction
Find out what warts and verrucas are, including what they look like and how you can get rid of them.
What warts and verrucas look like
Warts and verrucas come in all shapes and sizes. They can affect any part of the body, but are more common on the hands and feet. Warts : tendto be round or oval-shaped(although some are long an
Treatments for warts and verrucas
Most warts and verrucas will eventually clear up without treatment. They can be removed with over-the-counter treatments, but these can be time consuming, painful and don't always work. Pharmacy tre
When to see your GP
See your GP for advice if: you're not sure whether a lump is a wart your GP can usually identify a wart by looking at it pharmacy treatments haven't worked you have a wart on your face don't treat
Causes of warts and verrucas
Warts are caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) . This causes an excess ofa substance called keratin to developin the toplayer of skin, resulting ina hard, rough lump. Warts don't spread easily,
Preventing warts and verrucas
It's difficult to prevent warts and verrucas completely, but the following measures can help stop them spreading: avoidtouching other people's warts wash your hands after touching your own wart avo
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