Don't forget your shower shoes

One good reason to wear shower shoes is to decrease your risk of getting warts. Warts are skin infections caused by the human papilloma virus family. The virus is spread by skin-to-skin contact and close physical contact in places like public showers and pools. You might have heard of HPV in the context of genital warts. Only certain members of the HPV family cause genital warts and cervical problems. There are more than 100 specific types of HPV, and most cause harmless but unsightly warts on the body.\nThere are four types of warts:\n• Common warts\nUsually occur on fingers, hands, knees and elbows. They might appear as a small hard bump, darker than other skin, with a rough top like cauliflower with black or brown-red dots inside.\n• Plantar warts \nFound on the bottom (plantar) surface of your foot, plantar warts might look like callouses, but they grow larger than normal until it eventually feels like you're walking on a small rock. It usually looks like a common wart but appears on the bottom of the foot.\n• Filiform warts \nFinger-like in shape, flesh-colored and found on the nose, eyelids or around the mouth, these warts are often seen on the end of witches' noses in Disney movies.\n• Flat warts \nAre pinhead-sized, flat-topped, smoother, pink, tan or yellow in color. Flat warts might appear in clusters, usually on arms, hands or knees.\nHow can you avoid getting warts? First, don't kiss any toads. Just kidding. To decrease the risk of contracting HPV, wear flip-flops in the shower or at public pools. Keeping your feet clean and dry also helps because the virus lives in moist environments. Ragged cuticles from dry skin, nail-biting or small cuts might also provide a means for the virus to enter the body.\nHow long does it take before you get warts if you have been exposed to the virus? Depending on the health of your immune system (the body's internal mechanism for fighting disease), you might or might not develop warts after exposure to HPV. If you are susceptible, warts grow slowly, often taking weeks or months to grow to a noticeable size. Most of us have been exposed to a variety of HPV viruses in childhood. Sometimes the stress of college life might suppress the immune system's ability to keep the virus under control. If the immune system is compromised, it might allow a wart to develop many years after initial exposure. \nSo now you know this strange, rough bump that appeared is a wart and not a cancerous or life-threatening growth. Even then, it is still irritating and not cosmetically appealing. About 25 percent of warts will go away on their own in 12 to 24 months, most in two to three years. If you are impatient or uncomfortable, there are number of ways to treat warts. Over-the-counter treatments with salicylic acid (Compound W, etc.), when used properly, can be effective. Soaking the wart in warm water for 10 minutes before and using a pumice or nail file to remove the excess rough skin will allow topical medication to soak into the wart. A small amount of duct tape applied directly over and around the wart is effective for some individuals, according to a report from the Journal of American Medical Association.\nCryotherapy (freezing the wart with liquid nitrogen) is a common treatment. It generally takes two to four treatments every one to three weeks. Treatments might cause some discomfort but are not usually painful. Some dermatologists use laser therapy. In other instances, the wart might be cut out. This is a more drastic treatment and can leave a scar. Some warts are resistant to treatment. \nAt this time, there is no treatment that kills the virus that causes plantar warts. \nFor further questions on wart treatment, please make an appointment with an IU Health Center provider. For questions about genital warts and HPV as it relates to sexually transmitted infections, see our Web site, www.indiana.edu~health.