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What is the natural history of verrucas?

Verrucas, and warts, are known to disappear spontaneously. This is thought to be the body creating antibodies against human papilloma virus. Therefore the body's immune system can fight the virus and after time, the wart or verruca can disappear.

However, in other people, the verruca can remain for quite some time and even develop other verrucas found it - causing an "mosaic" effect.
 

Mosaic verrucae - verrucas - on toeWhich verrucas need treatment?

Ideally all verrucas should be treated to prevent transmission to other noninfected people. However, not everybody is able to, or wants to, get treatment.

The verrucas that need treatment are:

  • verrucas on the weight bearing areas of the foot
  • verrucas between the toes, on the tips of toes or on the tops of toes
  • verrucas that sociably unacceptable
  • The verrucas that are found on the thicker skin, on the weight bearing areas of the foot, are deeper than those found elsewhere on the foot. This means that they may take more treatment than those in other areas. Also, as noted above, they may cause pain on standing on them.

    Verrucas on the toes can cause discomfort due to the skin on the toes being more sensitive and due to them rubbing on footwear or the other toes.

    Many people wish to have their verrucas treated to prevent them being a risk of spreading them to others.

    The treatment of verrucas is discussed on the website www.verruca-treatment.co.uk.