Showing posts with label Risk Factors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Risk Factors. Show all posts

Ringworm Treatment: Risk Factors

Ringworm is highly contagious. Understanding this fact is essential to successful ringworm treatment. Through direct skin-to-skin contact, ringworm can be passed from one person to another or from infected animals (cats and dogs) to humans. As a carrier of ringworm, you or your infected pet will remain infectious for as long as the fungus remains present in the skin lesion.

Ringworm can also be spread through contact with infected objects such as personal items (like combs, towels, hairbrushes, clothing, headgears, exercise mats) or infected surfaces in public bathing areas, pool decks, locker rooms, and gyms.

As noted in the Mayo Clinic article, "the organisms that cause ringworm thrive in damp, close environments. Warm, humid settings that promote heavy sweating also favors its spread. Excessive perspiration washes away fungus-killing skin oils in your skin, making it more prone to infection. Athletes are at higher risk of ringworm."

In the past, there has been numerous cases of ringworm outbreak among athletes, wrestlers in particular, in different schools in the country. This is because wrestlers are not onlyprone to excessive sweating, but also have frequent skin-to-skin contact with potentially infected individuals, in the course of practice and during competitions. Moreover, they are constantly exposed to the risk areas mentioned above where ringworm-causing fungi thrive.

"Ringworm often occurs in young children. Outbreaks of ringworm are common in schools, child care centers, and infant nurseries. Children with pets are at increased risk of ringworm."

The Mayo Clinic article also pointed out that "ringworm often occurs in young children. Outbreaks of ringworm are common in schools, child care centers and infant nurseries. Children with pets are at increased risk of ringworm." For ringworm treatment to be effective and successful in such cases, both your child and the pet need to be treated for ringworm.

Of course, adult pet-owners are obviously at risk too of acquiring the disease from infected pets, although the probability is lesser since adults are more hygiene-conscious than children. People who are constantly exposed to the soil, like farm workers and, again, playing children are also at high risk of getting infected. Many different types of ringworm-causing fungi are present in the soil.

Others at increased risk of ringworm include "people with weakened immune systems, such as people with diabetes or HIV/AIDS. If you have atopic dermatitis — a chronic, skin disease characterized by itchy, inflamed skin — you may be more susceptible to ringworm. The barrier in your skin that normally protects you from viral, bacterial and fungal infections is often weakened or compromised. Some people may be genetically prone to this type of infection."

Again, ringworm treatment, depending on the severity of the infection, consists of either topical treatment (applied to the affected area of your skin) or oral medication. The latter, oftentimes, requires prescription by a medical professional.

RELEVANT LINKS:
MayoClinic.com medical resource service by the highly-respected Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC): "Your Online Source for Credible Health Information"