Almost everyone will get at least one wart in their lifetime. The good news though is that these dark brown little circles are perfectley harmless and will go away on their own within a couple of years. Also unless they are on the soles of the feet they are generally painless as well. However, when you have a wart, one thing to bear in mind is that they are highly contagious and easily spread through skin to skin contact.

Although they can be passed form skin to skin contact, warts are ultimately caused by a viral infection. More specifically by the human papillomavirus (HPV) and are contagious when in contact with the skin of another. This is a family of viruses as Human papillomavirus can include more than 100 different strains or types. Normally, the virus will reside in the bottom layer of the epidermis and replicates into almost normal looking skin. As you can imagine, there are lots of different kinds of warts because of the fact it belongs to a group of viruses. These warts differ in shape and site affected, as well as the type of human papillomavirus involved. Although nothing to get too alarmed about, warts are actually benign tumours of the epidermis caused by a virus.

Now, treatment is not necessary for warts, as given time they will just disappear, however some people do feel the need to treat them to speed up this process. Plus, one of the other reasons people get them treated is because treatment helps to prevent warts from spreading to other parts of your body and also to other people. There are various types of treatment, and they generally involve the physical or chemical destruction of the lesion. Medical professionals have differing treatments they can offer, and these include Keratolysis which is removal of dead surface skin cells usually using salicylic acid, blistering agents, immune system modifiers or formaldehyde. Another treatments which is done in the doctor's office is Cryotherapy. Basically this is freezing off the wart with liquid nitrogen. Treatment removes the visible wart but not the virus. And as you may expect treatment depends on the size, location and number of warts as well as the activities of the infected person. As with most medical treatments there is a growing trend to shy away from them and go down a more homeopathic or natural route to find a remedy. This is growing more and more popular because lets face it ,the two treatments mentioned do not sound like a great deal of fun.

Most people will experience having a wart, they are that common, and although they are harmless enough, they are a viral infection but they will resolve themselves within a couple of years. And even though warts are actually benign tumours of the epidermis caused by a virus it is nothing to worry about. And bear in mind that warts are highly contagious, and if you do get one it has probably been transmitted from person-to-person contact.