What Causes Common Skin Warts

I went onto WebMD.com and i came across this article about the cause of the common skin wart. And what I found out was quite interesting.

When skin warts appear, it can seem as if the harmless growth came out of nowhere.

But common skin warts are actually infections on the top layer of skin caused by a virus called the human papillomavirus, or HPV. When the virus get's into the outer layer of the skin usually through a cut it causes an unusual rapid growth of cells on the outer layer of the foot creating the wart. “HPV is ubiquitous,” says dermatologist Conway Huang, MD, an associate professor of dermatologic surgery and cutaneous laser surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“We all come in contact with it,” throughout our lives, such as when
shaking hands, turning doorknobs, or typing on keyboards."

Scientist have discovered more than 100 unique types of the virus and most people will have at least one common wart at sometime in their lives, usually on their hands. Some strains of the virus can cause just skin warts and others can cause genital warts, but some strands may cause both.

“People get warts from other people with warts, they don't get them from frogs and toads,” says Robert Brodell, MD, a dermatologist in Warren, Ohio.

“The most common way is direct skin-to-skin contact, such as shaking hands with someone who has warts on their hand. You can also get the virus from inanimate objects, like towels that have been used by someone with a wart.”
I thought that this article was interesting because alot of people have warts and I have always wondered what had brought them on. It is weird to think that just by touching someone with a wart on their hands or usuing a towl could pass the virus onto you. Also sort of nasty when you think about it.