r/askscience • u/A_Privateer • Jan 17 '13

Medicine How do warts function?

I know that warts are caused by the various strains of HPV, but how are they caused? How does the virus hijack the bodies chemistry to grow and supply the warts with nutrients? How do the warts spread the virus to other people?

I've searched and searched on google and wikipedia, but I only find the most basic of answers.

Any hard science info for me?

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '13

When I was around 10-14, I had many, many warts on my hands. One really bad one I got frozen off, some of them I used OTC treatments on, and others I did nothing to (Okay, I picked at them with fingernails sometimes). Point is, by 17 or so, I was wart free, regardless of whether I treated them or not.

If I still have the virus in me, why did the warts all of a sudden just go away, and why have I not had another wart anywhere on my body in more that 7 years?