Many diseases that occur in a person's life path are easily cured and do not leave consequences, but there are also those that bring a lot of inconvenience and many difficulties arise with their treatment. One of these ailments is ringworm, the treatment of which requires an integrated approach and patience.
What is ringworm?
Ringworm or this ailment is also called microscopy - a skin disease caused by a fungus from the genus Microsporum. The disease affects the skin, hair, in rare cases, nails and eyelashes. The fungus that causes the disease is also called a dermatophyte, which means "loving the skin."
In most cases, ringworm, the treatment of which is always chosen individually, appears on the head under the hair. Round foci appear, all hair breaks off at a height of about 5 cm from the skin. There are large sizes, about the size of a palm. One gets the feeling that the hair was cut on purpose, hence the name of the disease.
On the body, the lichen has an oval shape, surrounded by a raised roller. In the centerthe focus can be seen peeling, in some cases itching is felt.
Children's ringworm (treatment described below) is a common disease. This is due to the fact that they often play with pets. Their skin is delicate, their hair is thin and not protected by organic acids. Most often, the disease manifests itself in late summer or autumn.
Adults are also susceptible to fungus. With age, a large amount of organic acids accumulate in human hair, which inhibit the spread of the fungus. Young women get sick more often.
Causes of occurrence
The fungi that cause ringworm have long been studied. They can exist only in the superficial layers of the skin and do not penetrate deep inside. Mucous membranes and other systems are not affected by fungi. You can get infected in several ways: from a person, an animal, through contact with the soil, when visiting a public bath or swimming in a pool. But for the process to begin to develop, certain factors are required:
- Use other people's household items: towels, combs, underwear, clothes and shoes.
- Most often ringworm is transmitted from dogs. Treatment will not be required if hands are washed after each contact with the animal.
- Injury to the skin, including those that are not visible to the eye.
- Decreased immunity.
The causative agent of the disease lives in the environment for a long time, so it is enough just to touch the place where the sick animal previously lay, as the fungus already receivesan excellent opportunity to move onto human skin. At this point, the immune system should come into action, but if it does not work at full strength, then the disease begins to develop rapidly. That is why the treatment of ringworm in a child on the head or any other part of the body is more often required than in an adult. In babies, the immune system is not able to quickly cope with the fungus, and the disease develops.
Types of ringworm
Depending on the type of carrier (it can be a person or an animal) and the state of he alth of the body, various types of ringworm can occur. Treatment should be selected only after an accurate diagnosis has been made. In medicine, there are such forms:
- Chronic. It is more common in girls after puberty. A prerequisite for the development of the disease is ringworm, the treatment of which was incomplete or it was in a latent form in childhood. The disease is activated with a decrease in immunity, disruptions in the hormonal background, pathologies that affect the female reproductive system. In boys during puberty, the bacteria that cause the fungus die on their own, without transforming into a chronic form. The disease is characterized by pink-bluish rashes, scars appear, hair falls out, nails become brittle and turn pale.
- Superficial lichen. Deforms only shallow skin cells. As with any other form, the skin itches, hair falls out, and patches of pale color with red edging appear.
- Purulent form. It is transmitted from a sick animal. The fungus penetrates deep into the hair follicles, does not sufferonly the skin, but the whole body from the inside. The body temperature rises, the lymph nodes are painful. Treatment of ringworm in dogs and adults should be comprehensive. This form provokes erosive-ulcerative rashes of red color with an uneven surface on the body. The lesions swell and pus is released from them.
- Deep lichen. It affects the skin to a depth of 40 mm, large subcutaneous nodes appear on the legs.
- Plantar lichen. Appears on the feet and strongly resembles corns.
- Toenails. It appears in the form of light spots, the surface of the nail plate becomes loose, uneven and crumbles.
- Papular. It manifests itself in the form of raised rashes on the face or chest, smooth skin turns into loose.
- Abortive form. is a rash with indistinct edges, their color is white or pale pink, the symptoms are mild.
Only after studying the form, the cause of ringworm in a person is determined, and the treatment is selected in accordance with them. To confirm the diagnosis, a dermatologist examines the rashes through a Wood's lamp and interviews the patient.
Main symptoms
If there are suspicions of a disease, then you need to know what are the main signs of ringworm in children, and select treatment only after determining its form. You can identify the disease by the following symptoms:
- Hair becomes dull, brittle and weak.
- Bald areas with a diameter of no more than 10 cm appear.
- Round and oval spots appear,covered with scales.
- Over time, nodules and circles begin to appear, spreading throughout the body.
- There is itching.
- The lesion has a red and pink rim, vesicles and nodules are present.
- When the nail is damaged, the plates delaminate, crumble, acquire a grayish tint, become as thin or thick as possible.
You can determine the chronic form of ringworm (treatment is selected in each individual case) by the following signs:
- foci grow on the temples and the occipital region;
- contours of spots are blurry;
- affected areas become bluish.
There are a number of symptoms that should alarm the patient:
- appearance of red spots on the head with fuzzy contours, can cause itching;
- abundant dandruff and severe peeling of foci of round or oval shape, up to 10 mm in diameter;
- excruciating itching;
- dramatic change in the structure of the hair, deterioration of their condition.
Before you choose a way to treat ringworm in a person, you need to diagnose.
Diagnostic measures
A dermatologist can make an accurate diagnosis. It is installed only during a personal examination of the patient. Treatment can be prescribed without specific studies. If it is additionally necessary to conduct tests, the doctor recommends doing:
- scraping from the focus with further microscopic examination to accuratelydetermine the type of bacteria that caused the fungus;
- luminescent diagnostics, which allows you to examine the affected area under a special lamp (it starts to glow);
- seeding a fungus in a Petri dish to identify the type of microorganism.
After clarifying the diagnosis and determining the form of the pathology, the dermatologist can prescribe effective drugs for treatment.
Treatments for ringworm
Therapy is aimed at fighting the fungus itself, not the symptoms. Treatment is prescribed by a dermatologist, includes taking pills and using ointments for external treatment of affected areas.
As a topical treatment, ointments, creams, shampoos are recommended, which contain the following active ingredients: miconazole, clotrimazole, mycoseptin.
- Smooth skin lichen is better treated with Terbinafine and Tolnaftat.
- Iodine solution 5% is used to treat affected areas.
- In the evening before going to bed, it is recommended to treat lichen foci with "Sulfur-salicylic" or "Sulfur-tar" ointment.
- It is allowed to treat with pure "Salicylic acid" 3%.
- In addition to external agents, it is recommended to add Griseofulvin tablets to the treatment of ringworm, which act specifically on the fungus that caused the disease. You need to take the drug for a course of at least 15 days, in advanced cases, the doctor recommendsincrease the reception period to 25 days. Regularly throughout the entire period of treatment, the patient must take a scraping for the presence of bacteria that caused the pathology. After the analysis shows that there is no fungus, Griseofulvin tablets are taken for another two weeks to consolidate the result.
If the lichen has affected the feet, then in this case it is recommended to take the drug "Ketoconazole" or "Clotrimazole" orally, and externally apply "Selenium Sulfide".
The chronic form involves the treatment of ringworm on the body in the form of ingestion of antifungal agents and the treatment of affected areas with external agents. It is also advised to add vitamin therapy, immunomodulators, means that strengthen blood vessels and improve blood circulation.
After completing the full course of therapy, the patient must take a scraping from the skin in the places of the foci of the disease. You need to take it three times: immediately after the end of treatment, after a week and after two months. If all three tests show a negative result, then we can assume that the treatment was successful and the disease will not return.
Treatment with folk remedies
Very well helps folk treatment for ringworm. This ailment has long been a concern for many people, so home recipes have appeared that can effectively deal with it. To date, doctors consider alternative methods of treating ringworm in humans as auxiliary, which help relieve symptoms and help specific medicinalmeans to cope with the fungus.
Traditional medicine involves the use of natural antiseptics and anti-inflammatory drugs that effectively fight the fungus:
- Apple cider vinegar. It is not necessary to dilute it before use. You can rub or make lotions with it up to 6 times a day.
- Garlic. Peel one tooth, cut in half and rub into the foci. You can supplement the procedure with a mixture of birch charcoal and burdock juice, the ratio of components is 1:1.
- Effectively treat ringworm with cranberries. It is an excellent natural antiseptic. Soak a piece of gauze with its juice and apply to the affected areas of the skin. Carry out the procedure at least three times a day.
- Mix 2 tbsp. l. hops, burdock and calendula. Pour the mixture with 250 ml of boiling water and hold in a water bath for another 10 minutes, then strain and make an ointment based on petroleum jelly, take 2 tablespoons and 1 cooked decoction. Lubricate lichen several times a day.
- A decoction of medicinal herbs is taken when lichen has struck the scalp. You need to mix 4 parts of the string, 2 parts of celandine and 1 part of horsetail. Take 2 tablespoons of the mixture and pour a glass of boiling water, insist for an hour, rub into the head and make compresses.
Treatment of ringworm on the head and other parts of the body is best done in combination, taking medicine inside and using traditional medicine outside. In this case, the therapy will be more effective.
Ringworm in animals
Often people become infected with lichen from contact with a sick animal. They have two illnessestypes of fungus: trichophytosis and microsporum. Infection of cats and dogs occurs through contact with a sick animal. The disease can also be carried by rodents.
The incubation period in an animal lasts from 8 to 30 days, after which red foci with clearly defined edges appear at the site of the fungal infection. The spots are covered with crusts. Initially, the disease affects the face, and after the ears and limbs.
Fluorescent diagnostics will help confirm the diagnosis, using a Wood's lamp you can see how the spots on the skin glow with an emerald color.
The treatment of ringworm in cats and dogs is quite complex. Previously, all sick animals were euthanized, but today a special vaccine against the fungus has appeared. Therapy is selected by the veterinarian in each case, but the main thing is to limit contact with the animal and constantly disinfect the premises. If you have a four-legged friend in the house, it is better to immediately vaccinate him and protect him and yourself from the disease.
Hygiene measures for contact with the sick
There are many effective ways to treat ringworm. But you need to remember that a sick person is contagious and, upon contact with him, the fungus can be transmitted to another person, so it is important to know how to protect yourself. If there was contact with a sick animal or person, be sure to wash your hands with soap with an antifungal effect. The best product that you can buy in any store is birch tar soap. It is better to wash the whole body, and wash the clothes thoroughly, because the fungus can persist for a long time.any surface.
Today, many modern unique products have appeared that have a powerful antifungal effect, including "Citeal". It must be diluted in a container 1:5. The result is a foaming liquid that is used to wash hands and body.
When washing your hair, you can use an antifungal shampoo, such as Nizoral. It is also allowed to be used as a shower gel.
The sooner a person washes off the particles of the fungus transferred from a sick animal, the more likely they are not to get infected.
Lavender oil, tea tree oil and turpentine have good antifungal properties. They can be used to treat small areas of skin.
If it is reliably known that there was contact with a sick person or animal, it is better to seek help from a specialist. He will conduct an examination using a Wood's lamp and will be able to identify the disease at an early stage. Treatment in this case will not be so difficult, besides, you can protect your relatives.
Hygiene measures for treating ringworm
Not only is the right treatment important for the patient, hygiene rules must also be observed. Mushrooms, along with particles of skin and hair, quickly disperse around the room and remain there to live for three months. As a result, even after a properly performed treatment and good results, the patient may again experience symptoms of the disease, and all because he again had contact with an infected surface. Recommendations are as follows:
- During therapy, underwear of a sick personmust be washed separately, before being sent to the machine, soak for a couple of hours in a disinfectant. After washing, it is recommended to boil it again, and then iron it with a hot iron.
- The sick room and common areas of all family members should be wet cleaned daily.
- All items used by the patient should be treated with a disinfectant solution, but only with one that effectively fights this type of fungus.
- The following products are well suited for cleaning an apartment: Alpinol, Maxi-Dez, Alaminol Plus.
For the time of illness, it is better to roll up all the carpets in the apartment, remove soft toys and things that are hard to clean. It is better to cover upholstered furniture with cellophane.
Personal hygiene of a patient with ringworm
If the patient's disease has affected the scalp, then he just needs to wear a scarf or a knitted cap, which will prevent the spread of the fungus throughout the room. If the foci hit the body, then you need to wear the most closed clothing and preferably from natural fabrics. Change clothes daily.
Unless the doctor has specified any other measures, then every day a patient with ringworm should take a shower using special antifungal shampoos: Nizoral, Ketozoral, Keto plus. It perfectly fights the fungus and does not allow it to spread throughout the body "Citeal". It can be diluted 1:10 with water or used undiluted on small areas of skin. In somecases, the doctor may recommend not to wet the affected areas of the skin. In this case, while taking a shower, the foci are covered with cellophane.
Ringworm, although an unpleasant disease, is quite treatable. It is only important to seek medical help in a timely manner.
