Warts on the big toe
A common wart under the microscope

Warts are growths on the skin. Very often they resemble solid blisters. Usually, applying pressure to a wart causes pain. Warts are caused by viruses in the HPV family. As there are many types of viruses in the HPV family, there are also many types of wart. In most cases, warts are not dangerous, but may cause a lot of pain.

The virus infects skin cells; if these skin cells move to other areas, new warts can grow there. Warts contain tissue that bleeds easily. A bleeding of this tissue allows the wart to spread to other places. In general, coming in contact with infected tissue spreads the infection.

There are different ways of getting rid of a wart:

Types of warts

There are different types of warts, caused by different HPV viruses:

Getting rid of warts

There are different ways of getting rid of a wart: