Warts and verrucas go away by themselves. Here is how to survive them

Being a family doctor is sometimes the least glamorous job in the world, dealing with the unpleasant, mundane and sometimes just downright boring health issues that exist. However, for the patients suffering from these problems, it’s a big deal and one of the typical common currencies of minor problem I see almost every day in my surgery is the issue of warts and verrucas.

These are caused by a harmless viral infection in the skin called the human papilloma virus (HPV). HPV causes keratin, a hard protein in the top layer of the skin, to grow too much, giving the typical roughened texture of a wart. There are more than 60 different types of viruses known to cause warts. They are increasingly common through childhood and adolescence but then their frequency drops drastically again on reaching adulthood. Warts often look different depending on where they are on the body and how thick the skin is.