Most types of viral outbreaks elicit sympathy and compassion. You have a cold? Poor thing - let me make you some chicken soup. Caught the flu? You must feel miserable - remember to drink plenty of fluids. Have an outbreak of shingles? I'm so sorry that you're in so much pain. But one kind of viral outbreak elicits more derision than tenderness: common warts.
Social Stigma
Yes, verruca vulgaris - or the common wart - is caused by a virus. A person with verrucae vulagres isn't dirty, hasn't been touching toads, and probably won't infect you. Nevertheless, someone who has warts on his hands - the most common location for an outbreak - is treated a bit like a leper.
This kind of social stigma becomes heartbreaking when the person with common warts is a child. Given that children and adolescents are more likely to have warts than adults, there can be long-term consequences to the disparaging remarks made by classmates and peers. Lowered self-esteem, lack of social confidence, and an internalized sense of shame can linger long after the warts are gone.
Painful and Tedious Treatments
Within the medical community, there is no single, standard recommended treatment for common warts. Some pediatricians will tell parents that warts will eventually go away on their own - although it may take two years or more. That's little solace to the child who's being ridiculed at school. Other doctors will recommend salicylic acid - the active ingredient in most over the counter wart removal products. However, these over the counter products require impeccable application techniques to avoid injuring the surrounding skin, and often don't have long-term effectiveness.
Other doctors will embark on various treatment regimes, such as repeated liquid nitrogen applications, which freeze the common warts and surrounding skin, causing painful blisters. If that doesn't work, the next step is often canthardin, a power chemical derived from beetles that also causes blistering. Needless to say, such treatment regimes are not only physically painful, but reinforce the emotional pain and internalized sense of shame that many children feel.
Natural Alternatives
When parents find out that there is an alternative treatment for common warts, one that uses 100 percent natural essential oils, they usually embrace it. After all, burning your child's skin with liquid nitrogen or other powerful chemicals is something most parents want to avoid. In contrast, natural essential oil formulas boost the immune system and draw out warts from the root upwards. Although it can take a few weeks for the warts to be eliminated, the treatment is not at all traumatic, does not irritate the skin, and leaves no scarring.
The bottom line? Common warts should not be a cause of shame, and parents of children who have warts should think twice before putting kids through painful courses of treatment. Natural alternatives are gentle and effective, achieving the same or better results without physical or psychological pain.
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