Common skin warts, or verruca vulgaris, are a benign or harmless condition, which may cause cosmetic concerns. One or two warts would generally not be reason for distress; however, frequently one has hundreds of warts.
The human papillomavirus (HPV) causes the common wart or verruca vulgaris. This is the same virus that causes genital warts which leads to cervical cancer. However, the common wart’s virus has affinity only for skin, ignoring the mucus membranes which occur on the cervix with disdain.
How common is the common wart? Some estimates of the prevalence of HPV infection in the population range as high as 79%. Warts may arise on any skin surface, but occur most commonly on a person’s legs, feet and toes or arms, hands, and fingers. Although treatment may remove the wart, the virus remains latent within the skin cells.
As warts are ugly, however, treatment is requested by many people. More than 50% of warts disappear over time without any treatment. However, for those that remain, the folk-lore has been to use duct tape to remove. Has this folk-lore any medical validation, or has it existed over the course of generations, as the 50% who were cured, were erroneously attributed to duct tape.
As many folk lore wisdoms have a scientific basis, a study was conducted to look at the effectiveness of duct tape in eliminating the unsightly wart.
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