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Ask the Experts about Opportunistic Infections

 

warts
Dec 23, 2000

I am an HIV patient for 14+ years, and have been doing well. however have an ongoing problem with warts. I have one on my thumb now that will not go away. To date it has been frozen 4x lasered out, and a blister beetle type of medication used along with another type of medication to cause a reaction to force the body to reject the wart. as of yet nothing has worked and every time a new treatment is done it comes back bigger. it now surrounds my thumb nail and has become pretty painful. I am at my wits end and dont know what to do

Response from Dr. Feinberg

Warts like the one you describe can be very problematic. One thing that you can do is to make sure you are on optimal antiHIV therapy, because a boost to your immune system from good HIV treatment can sometimes help your body control these other chronic infections better. Other approaches to look into include interferon therapy, topical imiquimod (Aldara), and, ultimately, if nothing at all works, a referral to a hand surgeon to see if surgical removal is plausible. However, be aware that nothing can guarantee that the wart will not come back, no matter how successful the treatment for the wart may be initially. Good luck!



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