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Use These Tips To Keep Your Hand Wart From Spreading

6 July 2016 by Joann Dunn

It's a shock to look down at your hand one day and see what appears to be a wart. If no one else in your home has a wart, you'll likely be mystified as to how you got the wart. If you do have a wart, it's a good idea to make an appointment with a professional like Henry E. Wiley, III, M.D. This skin-care expert will assess the wart and offer some treatment solutions that can spell the beginning of the end for the virus. Warts don't disappear overnight, however, so even as you visit the dermatologist regularly for treatments, it's important that you take care to prevent the wart from spreading elsewhere on your body. Here are some simple strategies to adopt.

Be Careful About Holding Your Hands Together

Many people have a habit of resting one hand on the other in a variety of situations, but you need to avoid this type of behavior if your wart is positioned so that it will come in contact with your other hand. Grazing the wart with your other hand is unlikely to cause the wart to spread, but you still want to minimize contact with the wart. If you find that you're frequently wanting to hold your hands together — for example, when you're sitting idly during a presentation at work — cover the wart with a small bandage.

Dry Your Hands With Paper Towels

Washing your hands frequently is an effective way to reduce the risk of the wart spreading, but you need to be careful about drying your hands afterward. Don't use a hand towel; warts can easily live in damp environments, and the wart virus could remain in the wet towel and spread the next time you use it. Instead, always dry your hands with a paper towel and then dispose of it afterward.

Protect Any Cuts On Your Other Hand

If you have a small open sore on your wart-free hand, whether it's a paper cut, a burn or any small wound, it's more at risk of developing a wart. Warts can easily transfer when the skin is broken, so make sure that you protect any open wounds with a bandage. While you can change the bandage, make sure that the area is covered until the wound has completely healed.

Avoid Gloves

Just as the wart virus can spread to a damp towel, it can also spread to a glove of any type, where it can linger and reinfect your hand at a later date — possibly even after your dermatologist has successfully removed the wart. As such, try to avoid wearing gloves of any type until the wart is gone.

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