The WARTES approach

This lesson is part of the WARTES HPV Masterclass. Preview: the first part of the narration.

Today I want to answer two questions I hear from my patients very often. The first one: "Doctor, when you treat my warts, will I also be free of HPV?" And the second: "My HPV test is positive, but I have no warts. So how will I be treated?" The answer to both questions is in the same place.

Treating warts and treating an HPV infection are not the same thing. Let's understand this together. First, let's take a closer look at a wart. This small bump is made of cells infected with HPV. Inside these cells, the virus multiplies, and new viruses are produced, especially in the upper layers of the wart.

So a wart is a place where the virus is produced in large amounts. Our first goal is to remove this source of the virus. There are different treatment methods for this. In suitable patients, I prefer to use CO₂ laser. With the laser, we remove the wart tissue carefully and effectively.

This way, we also remove the visible tissue that contains the virus. So, are we done? No!

…