Warts and verrucas can be spread through close skin-to-skin contact and indirectly from contaminated objects or surfaces, such as the area around a swimming pool.
Warts and verrucas will usually resolve spontaneously or with over the counter topical treatments such as salicylic acid. Treatment options for recalcitrant warts that do not clear with standard therapy include freezing (cryotherapy) or surgery.
Cryotherapy works by freezing cells within the wart so that they undergo cell death causing the wart to reduce in size. The surgical method, known as curettage and cautery scrapes of the wart or verruca and then the wound is sealed with heat in a process known as cauterisation.