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DIFFICULT-TO-TREAT WARTS
Warts are caused by viruses and can occur any where in your body. Some warts keep on coming back, no matter what your doctor does to treat them.
Most dermatologists try to destroy warts by freezing, burning, scraping and surgically excising them. Usually these treatments are effective in removing the warts, but sometimes the warts keep on coming back because the virus starts growing again in the wound created by the surgery. Warts that are particularly difficult to remove permanently are those around and under nails, around the genitals and rectum and some warts keep on returning no matter where they are.
After a wart has returned more than twice, it is usually a waste of time to keep on trying to remove them surgically and doctors have to help your immune system destroy them. One way is to inject repeatedly and directly into the wart, interferon, a chemical produced by cells when they are infected with viruses. Another way is to apply three times a week, a newly approved cream containing imiquimod, a chemical that strengthen your immunity's ability to kill the wart virus.
GA Richwald. Imiquimod. Drugs of Today, 1999, Vol 35, Iss 7, pp 497-511.
Checked 8/9/05