Are flat warts HPV viruses?

As the number of cancer patients increases year by year, many patients will associate their condition with whether they also have cancer. Many patients with flat warts believe that the disease they suffer from is also a type of cancer, so they are worried every day, fearing that their flat warts will develop into cancer. In fact, this is a misunderstanding. You can read on to learn more about whether flat warts are caused by HPV virus.

HPV, or human papillomavirus, is a double-stranded circular DNA virus that tropes for epithelial tissues such as mucous membranes and skin. Infection of the skin or mucous membranes can cause epidermal cell proliferation, causing papilloma or warts. Common warts, flat warts, plantar warts, filiform warts, genital warts, as well as cervical cancer and genital cancer are all caused by HPV.

However, HPV is a large family, with more than 200 subtypes known. Different types of HPV cause different symptoms and consequences. HPV subtypes can be divided into two categories: low-risk and high-risk types according to their pathogenicity or carcinogenicity risk. Low-risk types cause flat warts, common warts, genital warts, etc. For example, common warts and plantar warts are mostly caused by HPV1, HPV2, and HPV4. Flat warts are mostly caused by HPV3 and HPV10. Genital warts are transmitted through sexual contact, mostly caused by HPV6 and HPV11, and a few are caused by high-risk types HPV16, HPV18, HPV33, etc. In addition to causing genital warts, high-risk HPV can also cause malignant tumors such as genital cancer, cervical cancer, anal cancer, etc.

In addition, HPV is a picky eater, and each different subtype of HPV prefers different parts of the body. Depending on the site of infection, it can be divided into two categories: genital and non-genital. Genital HPV subtypes mainly cause lesions of the internal and external genitalia and anus, and can also cause lesions in the mouth, throat and other parts of the body, such as genital warts, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, etc. The most common subtypes of this type of HPV are HPV6, HPV11, HPV16, HPV18, HPV31, HPV33, etc.; non-genital HPV subtypes mainly cause lesions of the skin in non-genital and anal areas, such as flat warts, common warts, plantar warts and verrucous epidermodysplasia, etc. The most common subtypes of this type of HPV are HPV1, HPV2, HPV3, HPV4, HPV5, HPV7, HPV8, HPV10, HPV12, HPV23, HPV38, HPV54, etc.

It can be seen from this that the HPV subtypes that cause common warts and flat warts are completely different from the HPV subtypes that cause cervical cancer and cannot be transmitted or transformed into each other. However, if a female friend has a large number of flat warts or filiform warts on her body, it proves that she does not have a good resistance to the HPV virus. If she has not undergone cervical cancer screening before, she must get tested to see if she has any high-risk infection.