Question
Are hard skin and warts caused by AIDS?
9 April 2008. Related: All topics, Opportunistic infections.
Does AIDS cause you to have hard skin on your fingers and very small skin coloured growths that strongly resemble warts?
Answer
Thank you for your question. HIV weakens the immune system of a person living with the disease and makes them more vulnerable to opportunistic infections. The lower the CD4 count the higher the risk of opportunistic infections.
I am not aware of HIV being responsible of hardening the skin around the fingers. But I am aware of viral infections of the skin like molluscum contagiosium which affects sexually active adults and is classified as a sexually transmitted infection as well as warts, which can be more extensive in people with very weakened immune systems.
HIV doesn’t cause the warts, but your reduced immune system is less able to fight (the family of viruses responsible for warts).
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