A problem that just won't go away.

Warts do not come from handling frogs or toads, but are caused by a virus and always have been considered benign, notes Dennis Weigand, vice chairman of the Department of Dermatology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. "However, some [that are] caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) move into the realm of malignancy because HPV has been closely associated with cancer of the cervix in women."

Those resulting from some strains of the HPV tend to localize in the genital area, although certain of that type have been discovered on the hands of some patients. More commonly, they are found clustered on the hands, fingers, or feet or scattered on other parts of the body. "The biggest problem we encounter with warts, apart from that malignant potential, is just getting rid of the blasted things. That's because they're highly resistant to treatment; no one has ever really found a way to kill wart virus."

Remedies for warts abound, and Weigand maintains the reason so many treatments have been tried is a testimony to the fact that they are so hard to get rid of. "Warts are highly unpredictable. Spontaneous regression of warts is common, and that probably has resulted in so many folk remedies. Whatever a person does last to try to get rid of the wart gets the credit or the blame." Such folk remedies have included rubbing a dishrag on a wart and then burying...