Treatments: For Warts, the Duct Tape Cure

By JOHN O'NEIL

n article being published today adds one more item to the list of uses for duct tape. Now, it turns out, it helps get rid of warts.

The recommended technique does not involve ripping, and in fact was investigated by Dr. Dean R. Focht III and colleagues at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., as a less painful alternative to the practice of briefly freezing warts, which are most common in children.

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In the study, published in The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Dr. Focht found that warts disappeared for 85 percent — 22 of 26 children and young adults treated with duct tape — compared with 60 percent of a similar group treated with cold.

The duct tape was cut to fit over the wart, Dr. Focht said. Once a week, the tape was removed and replaced after the wart was rasped clean with an emery board or pumice stone.

Dr. Focht said he believed the tape worked in the same way that most other wart treatments work — by irritating the skin, thereby stimulating an immune system response that wiped out the viral infection that had caused the wart.

He said that children with warts should see their doctors to make sure the growths are actually warts.

After that, he said, simply waiting for the wart to disappear is one option. But if the parents want to treat it, he said, duct tape "is a great, simple option."