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Round Ringworm Rashes

Another annoying little health condition that creeps up on us and causes many people concern.

What is ringworm?

It actually isn't a worm at all, as the name may suggest. Ringworm is in fact a fungal condition that affects the skin which is easily transmitted from animals to humans. When you've seen it once it's pretty hard to miss in future, so I'll do my best to be able to describe it so that you can recognise it if ever need be!

Ringworm appears on the skin as a circular, scaly and itchy rash. It is generally red around the outside clearing in the middle to skin colour and can be of any size depending on severity. If it occurs on areas of hair growth it will cause the hair to fall out causing a bald patch on the area of skin affected.

Treatment

Luckily, ringworm can be easily treated if caught early. Anti-fungal creams, which can be purchased from the pharmacy, are applied to the area once or twice a day until the rash clears and then continued for seven days afterwards. Reason for this is that despite the symptoms clearing the fungus could remain dormant under the skin and become reactivated at any time. Continuing treatment ensures that you get down to the root of the problem and avoid future nasty rashes!

My other suggestion to improve success of treatment is to avoid using soap on the skin affected. Soap changes the pH of the skin and makes it a more friendly environment for fungi to grow, thus making treatment less effective. Instead, use a soap alternative, such as QV or Michael's Wash. Even something as simple as Sorbolene or Aqueous cream are suitable alternatives to soap that will help get rid of the problem as quickly as possible.

But if treatment sounds like a hassle, your best alternative is to try and avoid the infections in the first place of course. Since ringworm is most commonly transmitted to humans from animals it is often the pets that are the culprits that spread the problem. So once again, hygiene is of up most importance - that is, washing up after playing with the feline or canine family member!

Hope this has made things a little clearer about the matter of our friendly fungal friend the ringworm.