Seed Warts – The Tiny Enemy
What are seed warts? Seed warts are painless growths which appear in the neck, face, feet soles, fingers, hands and even in the genital areas. They usually do not cause irritations, but can cause a lot of discomfort in the case of frequent friction against the skin, clothes or footwear.
What causes seed warts? They are caused by a certain virus called Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). This virus is easily transmitted and it is now very common. It attacks the skin, forcing the skin cells to overgrow. The overgrowth of the skin cells is known as warts.
Types of Warts
Warts therefore, are a generic name that can refer to about ten different types of similar growths and they all have the similarity of being caused by the same type of viral infection. The existing member of the wart group includes the following:
- Flat Wart
- Common Wart
- Periungual Wart
- Mosaic Wart
- Genital Wart
- Digitate Wart
- Seed Wart
Amongst these aforementioned members the most common one is the seed wart. Why is seed wart most common? The answer to these question is very simply because it is the easiest to contact than all the other types of warts.
About Seed Warts
Comparatively, the most distinctive characteristic of the seed wart is its black spot on top of the protrusion. This black spot is as a result of broken blood vessels within the infected spot. These vessels are severed by the pressure applied by the virus to the area and are simultaneously covered up leaving the popular dark spot. The particular HPV that causes the seed warts is the HPV type 1 although other types might cause these types of warts, but this is the most noted cause.
Shockingly, it is important to note that just like its viral counterpart the HIV (human immuno deficiency virus), HPV has no known cure! Most shocking is also the counter fact that this particular HPV type1 is to a large extent harmless!
There we have it that seed wart is caused by a virus that is incurable, but also harmless for most of its actions.
Another big question is how do you get seed warts? Seed warts are contacted directly through blood or by physical contact with an already infected person. As already stated, one can get seed warts when one’s blood gets infected with the HPV1.
Strange as it might be the seed wart can be passed on to other parts of the body by touch in the same way it creeps from one body to another when there is a physical contact especially with the infected area. This particular wart is very contagious and this puts it on the top of the list of one of the most contagious infections for humans.
The contagious nature of the infection causes a lot of traumatization and stigmatization in an enlightened environment. People tend to avoid physical contacts with people diagnosed with the infection leaving most of them very frustrated. In some critical cases people actually go to the extreme of avoiding conversation and even eye contact with people infected!
As it might be noted, this is considered a necessary evil to do in other to reduce the circulatory nature of the infection, but care must be taken so as not appear too judgemental.
Seed Warts Removal Methods
Thankfully, nature has a way of creating a balance, unlike its stubborn causative virus it is not a totally incurable infection. So how then can we remove seed wart? Actually, this particular wart will most likely disappear after a while if an infected person maintains a high immune system. Apart from this natural cure it can be removed in a host of other ways.
Majorly, there are two ways of seed wart treatment which are by the application of Salicylic acid to the infected areas and through Cryotherapy.
The salicylic acid is referred to as wart compound and it attacks the wart layer by layer until it clears it completely and this is a very effective way of treating majority cases of the infection. Most pharmaceutical outlets around the world have this salicylic acid over their shelves, so it is readily available for the lay man.
Cryotherapy on the other hand involves the use of liquid nitrogen to freeze out the wart before removal with a scalpel. Ideally the first method is effective enough, but the second method is used on a case that is a bit more severe. Malignant cases are removed by complete surgery or the more modern laser surgery, but this s only a last option.
In the event of successful removal of the growth there is still a high percentage of it re-occurrence in a different spot on the palm, hand, or foot, It is permanently treated by administering drugs and injections that boosts the immune system.
As we have already seen that with a high immune system it is very possible to override the effect of the HPV1 in the body. Although there are many unverified traditional method of treating warts none has really been confirmed in laboratories so most are considered basic folklore.
Seed Warts Treatments
When seed warts are timely treated, the patients would experience no further symptom. When one of the warts is broken open and allowed to grow too large or allowed to be further affected, it can start causing pain. The skin surface may become sensitive to touch with a likely feeling of a mild to moderate pressure near the area of the wart.
Plantar warts or foot warts grow on foot soles that are subjected to high pressure all the time. They can grow in clusters, with a speck-like mosaic tiles look, which has also given them the name mosaic warts.
Seed warts are very infectious viral disease and they can easily creep into any system that is lax in the area of hygiene, so the watch word for everyone is to maintain proper hygiene. A clean environment and body will reduce the risk of contacting infections like it, as rightly put over time “prevention is better than cure”. Early detection of seed warts is very important which will help the patient determine the best course of seed wart removal.