Prevalence of Hand, Foot and Facial warts Amongst the 6-17 Years - Old Students of Rasht

ABSTRACT Wart is one of the most common contagious dermatologic diseases throughout the world, which allocate high funds for therapeutic, cosmetic and hygienic works in a society. It seems that school children are more susceptible to infection due to the closely extensive contacts with each other. Thus, with the aim of detecting the prevalance of wart in the exposed areas in school children in Rasht in 2000, we examined 3600 prepuberal students on the basis of clinical examination in a descriptive cross-sectional multistages random sampling study. The general prevalence was 10.1% with the highest rate among10-13 years old (11.5%), and the lowest one among 6-9 years- old students (7.9%). The highest prevalence was observed among the 13-years old students in both sexes (17.1%). Common warts were the most common type (38.7%) of all cases, and the highest rate of infection was seen in feet (49.4%), while face had the lowest rate. There was no significant difference between involvement by warts with students' sex, public or private baths, parent's literacy level and job apart from number of family offsprings. These data confirm that this infection is common amongt the school population. It seems logical to families and school health staff participating in the programmes to be familiar with preventive measures.