Smaller than other warts.įound mostly on the face, hands, and shins. Clustered plantar warts are called mosaic warts.įlat or slightly raised smooth and pink. Rough, spongy surface kept flat by walking gray or brown with dark specks.įound only on the soles of the feet. Those under or around the fingernails and toenails can be hard to treat. Raised, rough surface, sometimes with dark specks light-colored to gray-brown.įound mostly on the hands, but may appear anywhere.

But the HPV strains that cause skin warts have rarely been linked to skin cancer. Some specific types of HPV can cause cellular changes in the cervix and anus that can become cancerous. They are transmitted through sexual contact. But the most likely explanation is that some people are simply more prone to warts than others.Ĭertain other HPV strains cause genital and anal warts. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, so are people in certain occupations, such as meat, fish, and poultry handlers.

Children and people with immune system abnormalities are particularly vulnerable. Among the 150 strains of HPV, about 10 cause cutaneous (skin) warts, including common, plantar, and flat warts (see 'Common types of skin warts,' below).Īll of us come into contact with HPV repeatedly - when we shake hands or touch a doorknob, for example - but only some of us develop warts, and that's hard to explain. Warts occur when skin cells grow faster than normal because they are infected with the human papillomavirus ( HPV). (Some, like those on the face, may be smooth and flat.) The center of a wart may be flecked with dark dots these are capillaries that supply it with blood. A typical wart has a raised, rough surface. Warts grow in the epidermis, the upper skin layer. Wart removal can be a challenge, but fortunately, the most effective treatments are the least invasive. And some, like those found on the soles of the feet, can make walking and exercise painful. Warts are generally harmless and often disappear on their own over time, but they're unsightly.

Can you get hpv from touching hands