2 View comments My husband and a lot of our friends have an infestation of small raised warts around the neck.I also now have brown, flat warts in my cleavage. What are these and how can I get rid of them? Mrs J. Fryer, Wiltshire. Warts are caused by a type of virus called human papillomavirus Please don’t be alarmed — these are not contagious, and are not warts. The flesh-coloured growths on the neck are called skin tags, and today I spent half an hour with one of my male patients removing about 20 of them from his neck and armpits. Technically, these are called fibroepithelial polyps, and are harmless skin growths that appear in areas where the skin creases: typically the neck, armpits, groin, cleavage and under the breasts. We do not know exactly what causes them, but they seem to be a consequence of the ageing of the skin. Warts, by contrast, are caused by a type of virus called human papillomavirus. These skin tags carry no health risks but can become