Contrary to conventional wisdom, a new Dutch study has found that the most likely way children get infected with the virus that causes warts is from close contact with family members or classmates, rather than from public places such as pools or communal showers.
The researchers concluded that a widespread public health focus on encouraging kids to cover their warts with bandages when swimming or to wear flip-flops when using public showers does not address the primary source of wart infection.
To come to this conclusion, the study authors spent 18 months tracking wart occurrences among roughly 1,100 Dutch children enrolled in grades 1 through 7 (aged 4 to 12), all of whom were attending one of three different primary schools in Leiden, Netherlands.
“Current recommendations on wart prevention focus primarily on public places such as swimming pools,” said lead author Dr. Sjoerd Bruggink, from the department of public health and primary care at Leiden University Medical Center. “[But] children often get warts from family members or classmates rather than from public spaces, [suggesting that] covering warts at home or at school could maybe be more helpful in preventing warts.”
The Dutch team reported its findings online April 22 and in the May print issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Warts are caused by certain strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV); they are not the same as genital warts, which are transmitted sexually and raise the risk for cervical cancer.
To get a handle on what drives the spread of warts among grade school kids, the authors examined the
Read the rest of this article on HealthDay: Kids More Likely to Pick Up Warts at Home, Not Public Spaces
