Flat or Plantar warts 4 Symptoms of Human Papillomavirus virus (HPV)

Human Papillomavirus Infection (HPV) is one of the most ordinary Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI). Men and women who are most sexually active are prone to be exposed to this virus during their lifetime. It literary can infect anyone who is sexually active. Some of them do not even show the symptoms of the virus infection. There are more than 100 HPV types which have been identified and more than 40 types of the entire types have the risk to infect the genital area.

What is Human Papillomavirus Infection?

This human Papillomavirus is transmitted from skin to skin contact during the sexual intercourse. Other skin to skin contact on the genital areas can also transmit the virus. There are two types of human Papillomavirus: the low risk which has a low potential for cancer and the high-risk types which become the main cause for about 50% cervical cancer. The high-risk virus type is known as oncogenic human Papillomavirus type which is believed as the main cause of 100% cervical cancer cases.

There are certain groups of people who are exposed of the risk to get infected by this virus. Certainly people who have plenty of intimate partners or one of the partner has numbers of an intimate partner in the previous time. The risk of getting infected is getting higher for those who lack an immune system. People who have damaged skin areas are also prone to get infected if they have personal contact with warts or the HPV-infected area. The spreading of the infection is not limited only for the sexually active people only, it can be anywhere of the body area which is exposed to the virus including the mouth and throat. If someone perhaps has oral contact with the infected area such as oral sex or mouth to mouth infection is also possible.

Considering that this virus can be that dangerous especially when to transform into cancerous type; here are some symptoms and treatments of human Papillomavirus.

HPV Symptoms

Not every person who is infected to this virus show the symptoms. However, when the symptoms do occur and cause warts, here are the general symptoms according to the warts type. The appearance may slightly different depends on the infected location.

Common skin wart – the common wart often affects the previous skin injury areas such as the face, hands, scalp or skin. The surface of this wart may appear smooth or rough like cauliflower. The infected size is small for about 6 millimeters which are painless and firm. It is likely to grow in pink, beige, brown, or whitish color. It commonly occurs on children.

Flat warts – the flat wart commonly occurs in the face, chest, neck, wrists, forearms, and hands. It does not the itchy types; however, it grows in flat forms with beige, white, or brown color.

Plantar warts – the plantar is the thick and painful type which occurs on the soles skin. It often misjudges as simple calluses. This type of wart occurs mostly on adults, particularly young adults and adolescents.

Genital warts – this type wart usually appears for about one to ten pink and painless form. It has a rough surface like the cauliflower. In men, such infection usually occurs in the tip of the penis, the anus skin, particularly those who engage in anal sex, and the urethra. While in women, mostly appear on the labia or the lip like the skin around the vagina and the opening of the vagina. The genital wart generally occurs on young adults and adolescents who are sexually active or having exposed to the infected genital area.

Human Papillomavirus Infection Treatments

Because human Papillomavirus infection usually has no symptoms except the appearance, it is important to have home treatment before taking it to the medical practitioner. It also helps to recognize the existence of the wart before it gets severe. Sometimes, the wart will self-resolve without treatment; however, it surely causes uncomfortable feeling due to the shape, size or itchiness. Luckily, there is some over-the-counter and prescription medication which can be done at home.

The first thing to do for precautions is to prevent the infection to a sexual partner. Since the human Papillomavirus is very infectious, do not tempt to touch, pick, or squeeze warts. If it is required, the drugstore wart medications such as Imiquimod, Podofilox, and many more can be good alternatives to cure the wart. However, if it gets worse or the home treatment does not work, it is better to seek for the medical practitioner. There are three methods to remove warts: Cryotherapy, laser treatment, and electrodesiccation.

Cryotherapy – this method uses nitrogen liquid to freezes the wart or it is called cryoprobe. Cryotherapy is considered an excellent first-time treatment since it has few side effects.

Laser treatment – the very method is used for the recurrent and extensive wart on the genital area. The procedure may involve anesthesia of any types. The laser treatment destroys the infected area. However, there are also some disadvantage of this method such as high cost, required lots of healing time, leave scars and potential to infections during the laser procedure.

Electrodesiccation – the electric current is used to remove the wart in this method. The procedure can be done using the local anesthesia.

For both low-risk or high-risk human Papillomavirus, it is better to be very cautious about the infection by always conducting healthy living and stay loyal to one partner.