HPV from a swimming pool??? - Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Message Board

college_dude · 04-10-2001, 10:07 PM

Looking back, I have about decided that I contracted the HPV at a swimming pool. Last July 4th weekend, I went to a pool party at my college apartment complex swimming pool.

Several days later I developed this itching in my anal area that just would not go away. I thought at first the pool chemicals had irritated me. After about a week of enduring it, I went to see the the doc at the student health center, and he looked at it, and said he thought I had jock itch, and gave me some creme for it.

Well the creme did absolutely no good, and I went back to the same doc a week later, This time he told me that I had some hemoroids, but that was all he saw that could be causing the itching, because the redness had cleared up. He gave me some Preparation H cooling gel, and for a month or so, thought the problem had gone away. then several months later, I noticed a bump or two, that kinda itched, and though it must be the hemoroids again.

Well, I finally got the nerve to go see a proctologist about the hemoroids, and he immediately tells me that I have anal warts. The weird thing is the exact areas that were inflamed when the doc said I had "jock itch" is where the warts were.

I read that planter warts, are often spread in swimming pools because pool chemicals do not kill HPV, and the virus thrives in the moist environment. Can genital warts be spread this way too? It just seems like a weird coincidence to me that started having the itch down there after being in that pool.

On top of that, I have often wondered whether they put enough chemicals in that pool, because you can't smell the chlorine.

sferg · 04-11-2001, 12:30 PM

It seems like a logical conclusion to draw, that since you can pick up plantar's warts why not HPV? I've even thought about whether or not this could be picked up from having your bikini area waxed since I don't know what the aesthetician has been up to lately, or whether she may be a unknowing carrier.
This is very complex and frustrates the hell out of me.
sferg

Snuggles2u · 04-11-2001, 09:31 PM

I see no reason in driving yourself crazy with trying to figure out how you got HPV. All that matters now if that you have it and that you have to learn to live with it. Going over it in your head trying to figure out how you got it is not going to make it go away.
And I have read that the only way to get it is thought skin-to-skin contact or by using a sex toy that someone with the virus just used, I even called the CDC help line and they said that’s the only way you can get it. Don’t be crazy you didn’t get it at the pool, unless you were messing with someone there.
If you can’t give it to someone by using the toilet how in the world would you give it to someone by using the same pool?

college_dude · 04-11-2001, 10:54 PM

No, I wasn't messing with anyone in the pool, but I did sit on the side of it where it was wet, but I was wearing swim trunks.

Everything you read about HPV and what docs say seem to be so contradictory. I too have read that you can only get it from skin to skin contact during sex, or from sex toys, yet I have not had any sexual contact, or sex toys stuck back there where the warts are.

I have had a lot of planter warts on my feet, and warts on my hands though. The docs attribute them to the fact that I take a lot of immune suppresant drugs due to having a kidney transplant. Maybe these are the same sort of thing.

I have read several articles on the Net about people catching planter warts by from swimming pools, and gym showers. Your feet certainly don't usually come in direct contact with someone else's feet in the swimming pool, or shower, unless you are playing footsy with them LOL, So how can the HPV virus be transmitted that way? It just dosesn't make sense.

[This message has been edited by college_dude (edited 04-12-2001).]

Snuggles2u · 04-12-2001, 10:28 PM

I understand what you are saying. The way I figure it is that different types of HPV are contracted different ways example planter warts in comparison to common warts, and genital warts. From what I have read I have come to the conclusion that the different types of HPV out there are so different, that different types are contracted a different ways.
In the book “Prescription for Nutritional Healing 2nd ed.” and I quote (pg522)
“Highly contagious, the virus that causes common warts is acquired through breaks in the skin. It may be contracted by going barefoot in a locker room or other public areas, or by using another person’s comb or hairbrush. Common warts can spread if they are picked, trimmed, bitten, or touched. Warts on the face can spread as a result of shaving. Common warts typically do not cause pain or itching…. Planter warts do not tend to spread to other parts of the body…[genital warts] are sexually transmitted and are highly contagious: because warts do not usually appear until three or more months after an individual becomes infected with the HPV that causes them, the virus can spread before the carrier is even aware that he or she has it.”