What causes ringworms on the face: Ringworm: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments
Ringworm: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments
Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors
- What Is Ringworm?
- What Are the Symptoms Of Ringworm?
- How Do You Get Ringworm?
- How Do I Know If I Have Ringworm?
- What’s the Treatment For Ringworm?
- How Can I Prevent Ringworm?
- More
Ringworm isn’t a worm. It’s a skin infection that’s caused by moldlike fungi that live on the dead tissues of your skin, hair, and nails. You can get it in any of these places — and on your scalp.
When you get it between your toes, it’s what people call athlete’s foot. If it spreads to your groin, it’s known as jock itch.
The telltale sign is a red, scaly patch on light skin or brown or gray patches on skin of color. You may also get bumps that itch. Over time, the bump turns into a ring- or circle-shaped patch. It may turn into several rings. The inside of the patch is usually clear or scaly. The outside might be slightly raised and bumpy.
Ringworm on your scalp tends to start out as a bump or small sore. It may turn flaky and scaly, and your scalp may feel tender and sore to the touch. You may notice that your hair starts to fall out in patches.
Ringworm will often look red on light skin, but brown or gray on skin of color. Most ringworm of the skin can be treated at home with creams you can buy without a prescription. Photo credit: iStock/Getty Images
Ringworm is highly contagious. You can catch it in any of the following ways:
- From another person. Ringworm often spreads by skin-to-skin contact.
- From your pets. Rubbing or grooming Sparky? Wash your hands when you’re finished. It’s also very common in cows.
- By touching objects. The fungus that causes ringworm can linger on surfaces, clothes, towels, and in combs and brushes.
- From soil. If you’re working or standing barefoot in soil that’s infected with the fungus that causes ringworm, you can get it, too.
You’ll have to see your doctor to be sure if the infection is ringworm. There are a number of other skin conditions that look like it.
Your doctor will probably scrape some skin from the itchy, scaly areas and look at them under a microscope.
How the infection is treated depends on where it is and how bad it is. In many cases, your doctor may recommend an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine you can get at the drugstore. If the ringworm is on your skin, an OTC antifungal cream, lotion, or powder may work just fine. Some of the most popular ones are clotrimazole (Lotrimin, Mycelex) and miconazole.
In most cases, you’ll have to use the medicines on your skin for 2 to 4 weeks to make sure you kill the fungus that causes ringworm. It also will lower its chance of coming back.
If you have ringworm on your scalp or in many different places on your body, OTC treatments probably won’t be enough. Your doctor will have to write you a prescription.
Keep an eye out for symptoms that get worse or don’t clear up after 2 weeks.
If they don’t, call your doctor.
The fungi that cause it are everywhere. Still, here are some things you can do to lower your chances of getting ringworm or stop it from spreading:
- Keep your skin clean and dry.
- Wear flip-flops in locker rooms and public showers.
- Change your socks and underwear at least once each day.
- Don’t share clothes or towels with someone who has ringworm.
- If you play sports, keep your gear and uniform clean — and don’t share them with other players.
- Wash your hands with soap and water after playing with pets. If your pets have ringworm, see your vet.
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Ringworm: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments
Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors
- What Is Ringworm?
- What Are the Symptoms Of Ringworm?
- How Do You Get Ringworm?
- How Do I Know If I Have Ringworm?
- What’s the Treatment For Ringworm?
- How Can I Prevent Ringworm?
- More
Ringworm isn’t a worm.
It’s a skin infection that’s caused by moldlike fungi that live on the dead tissues of your skin, hair, and nails. You can get it in any of these places — and on your scalp.
When you get it between your toes, it’s what people call athlete’s foot. If it spreads to your groin, it’s known as jock itch.
The telltale sign is a red, scaly patch on light skin or brown or gray patches on skin of color. You may also get bumps that itch. Over time, the bump turns into a ring- or circle-shaped patch. It may turn into several rings. The inside of the patch is usually clear or scaly. The outside might be slightly raised and bumpy.
Ringworm on your scalp tends to start out as a bump or small sore. It may turn flaky and scaly, and your scalp may feel tender and sore to the touch. You may notice that your hair starts to fall out in patches.
Ringworm will often look red on light skin, but brown or gray on skin of color. Most ringworm of the skin can be treated at home with creams you can buy without a prescription./ringworm-overview-2632044_FINAL-e1669cad90b347b981a4c1ae42865fcc.png)
Photo credit: iStock/Getty Images
Ringworm is highly contagious. You can catch it in any of the following ways:
- From another person. Ringworm often spreads by skin-to-skin contact.
- From your pets. Rubbing or grooming Sparky? Wash your hands when you’re finished. It’s also very common in cows.
- By touching objects. The fungus that causes ringworm can linger on surfaces, clothes, towels, and in combs and brushes.
- From soil. If you’re working or standing barefoot in soil that’s infected with the fungus that causes ringworm, you can get it, too.
You’ll have to see your doctor to be sure if the infection is ringworm. There are a number of other skin conditions that look like it.
Your doctor will probably scrape some skin from the itchy, scaly areas and look at them under a microscope.
How the infection is treated depends on where it is and how bad it is.
In many cases, your doctor may recommend an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine you can get at the drugstore. If the ringworm is on your skin, an OTC antifungal cream, lotion, or powder may work just fine. Some of the most popular ones are clotrimazole (Lotrimin, Mycelex) and miconazole.
In most cases, you’ll have to use the medicines on your skin for 2 to 4 weeks to make sure you kill the fungus that causes ringworm. It also will lower its chance of coming back.
If you have ringworm on your scalp or in many different places on your body, OTC treatments probably won’t be enough. Your doctor will have to write you a prescription.
Keep an eye out for symptoms that get worse or don’t clear up after 2 weeks. If they don’t, call your doctor.
The fungi that cause it are everywhere. Still, here are some things you can do to lower your chances of getting ringworm or stop it from spreading:
- Keep your skin clean and dry.
- Wear flip-flops in locker rooms and public showers.
- Change your socks and underwear at least once each day.
- Don’t share clothes or towels with someone who has ringworm.
- If you play sports, keep your gear and uniform clean — and don’t share them with other players.
- Wash your hands with soap and water after playing with pets. If your pets have ringworm, see your vet.
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symptoms, treatment – health articles
11/10/2022
Worms are worms that lead a parasitic way of life in the body of their host – a man.
Age doesn’t matter. Both adults and children are equally susceptible to infection. The classification of helminthiases is very extensive, especially in countries with a hot climate.
There are 3 classes of parasitic worms:
- round (nematodes) – pinworms, roundworms;
- tapeworms (cestodes) – pork tapeworm, bovine tapeworm, echinococcus;
- flatworms, flukes (trematodes).
The most common worms in children are pinworms causing enterobiasis . These are helminths of small size, on average up to 1 cm, white-gray in color with a curved body. The place of localization of these parasites is the large intestine, but they can also penetrate into the lower sections of the small intestine. Reproduction of pinworms occurs on the skin near the anus. At night, female pinworms get out to debug eggs in the folds of the skin, often penetrating the labia in girls, which ends with infectious diseases of the genitals.
In total, these helminths live for about 1-1.5 months. The process of self-infection in a child can lead to the fact that the malaise will continue for many years. Parasites can be detected with the naked eye in the stool.
Another type of worm most commonly found in children is roundworm . Characteristic species, reaching a length of 15 cm, these nematodes settle in the lumen of the loops of the small intestine, advancing towards the moving food bolus. In the feces, roundworms are very rare. Females periodically release eggs, which can be found in the analysis of feces. But if they were not found during the study, this does not mean that the child is not infected. The life cycle of roundworm can last several years.
Reasons
The curiosity of the baby is realized by his fingers, the child, learning the world, actively touches everything that comes to his hand and immediately pulls it into his mouth, tasting it for strength and taste. Thus, pinworm eggs safely enter the digestive tract of their future little host.
A child becomes infected with worm eggs from the surface of unwashed fruits when drinking contaminated water. Very often, infection occurs when communicating with animals, or when playing in the ground, a sandbox, where cats and dogs like to solve their physiological problems. After a walk, children often do not wash their hands, and all the dirt, along with parasitic eggs, gets into their mouths.
Symptoms of worming
How to understand that a child has worms? If the child was infected with a large number of eggs of parasitic worms, then after a few days a sharp deterioration in the condition may occur. In milder cases, the first symptoms of invasion appear after a few weeks or even months. Much depends on immunity. It can quite cope with parasites and restrain their development. But gradually the defenses are reduced, and the helminths infect the body, causing serious problems.
The first signs of worms are symptoms of poisoning (intoxication). The vital activity of worms is accompanied by the release of a large number of animal toxins that can poison the child’s body.
In the intestines, parasitic worms use nutrients, as a result of which the baby gradually becomes deficient in proteins, carbohydrates, fats and vitamins.
The child develops:
- emaciation,
- pale skin,
- weakness, frequent dizziness,
- rise in body temperature, headache,
- bad dream,
- tearfulness,
- depressed mood.
Intestinal ailments are manifested – constipation, loose stools, rumbling and pain in the abdomen, bouts of nausea and vomiting, pain in different parts of the abdomen, bloating. The disease may be accompanied by allergic conditions: itching, rashes, cough, inflammation of the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract. Weakened immunity leads to the addition of infectious diseases.
Diagnosis and treatment of helminthiasis
Diagnosis of helminthiases by feces is quite difficult. This is due to the fact that ascaris or pinworm eggs do not appear in the feces every day, and the technique of microscopy of smears from the analysis requires great care.
To increase reliability, it is desirable to take a stool test for worm eggs for at least 3 days in a row.
In cases of increased risk of infection with worms (contact with animals, the child’s playing on the ground or in open sandboxes, the child’s habit of taking things in his mouth, biting his nails or licking his fingers, etc.), it is advisable to undergo an in-depth examination, which includes, in addition to a threefold analysis of feces special blood tests that detect antibodies to helminths.
In the presence of allergic manifestations of unknown origin, an increase in the number of eosinophils in the blood test, persistent intestinal dysbacteriosis, it is advisable to donate blood for the determination of class E immunoglobulins (Ig E and G) to ascaris and other helminths. You can check for worms in pets.
By evaluating the totality of circumstantial evidence and history, the doctor may recommend antihelminthic therapy without direct evidence of the presence of worms in the child, if other pathologies that cause similar clinical manifestations are excluded.
If worms are found in a child or in one of the family members, it is necessary, if possible, to treat all family members in order to avoid the formation of a focus of infection of each other with helminth eggs. In this situation, in addition, it is necessary to strengthen hygiene measures, in particular, boil and iron bed and personal linen on both sides.
If you find symptoms of infection with parasites, consult a doctor and undergo a diagnosis at the MEDSI-ProMedicina clinic in Ufa
Symptoms of worms and methods of their treatment – blog of the medical center ON Clinic
Worms (helminths) are parasitic worms that affect the internal organs (intestines, liver, brain, lungs) of a person.
Worm infestations lead to dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract, nervous system and skin lesions.
How are worms transmitted?
Worms are transmitted by the fecal-oral route. A person can become infected through contact with animals or people who excrete helminth eggs in feces.:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/throatpainfinal-01-5c3ba1dd46e0fb0001061529.png)
You can become infected with parasitic worms when using someone else’s personal hygiene products, toys, bed linen or dishes, as well as when washing a cat’s litter box without gloves.
Helminths can enter the human body while walking barefoot on contaminated soil. Parasitosis (helminthic diseases) also develop after drinking contaminated water or infected food: worms can be found in fish, meat (beef, pork), as well as fruits and vegetables.
Symptoms of worms
Signs of worms in humans are constant fatigue, weakness and muscle pain (myalgia).
Worm type | Symptoms | Modes of infection | Complications 9 0003 |
Ascaris | Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, allergic reactions | Contaminated food , non-sterile instruments | Intestinal obstruction, intestinal perforation |
Flatworm | Redness and itching of the anus, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting | Contaminated food, dirty hands | |
Pinworm | Itching and burning around anus, sleep disturbance | Contaminated food, dirty hands | Anal fissures, appendicitis |
Trichinella | Muscle pain, swelling, fever | Raw or undercooked meat IT, paralysis | |
Opisthorchia | Pain in the right hypochondrium , nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice | Eating raw or undercooked fish, contact with contaminated water | Pancreatitis, jaundice, liver cancer |
Echinococcus | Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, jaundice, itching, allergic reactions | Eating food contaminated with worm eggs, contact with infected animals | Cysts in the liver, lungs, brain and other organs |
Toxocara | Weakness, fever, cough, abdominal pain, anemia | Contact with infected animals contaminated with worm eggs, eating contaminated food | Visual impairment, paralysis, impaired lung and heart function a, vomiting, constipation, or diarrhea.
With the localization of worms in the lungs, dry cough, shortness of breath and bronchospasm appear. Worms in the liver are manifested by pain in the right hypochondrium, itching of the skin and nausea. What do worms look like?The color, size and shape of helminths depend on their type. The most common types of worms are:
Among the worms, pinworms are also isolated – small (males up to 5 mm long, females up to 13 mm) grayish-white worms that affect the intestines and cause severe itching of the anal area. In order to establish the type of helminth, it is necessary to pass an analysis of feces for eggs of worms. 1/5 roundworm 2/5 whipworm 3/5 opisthorchia 4/5 echinococcus 5/5 tapeworm skin due to wormsSkin syndrome with worms is characterized by itchy rashes in the form of red spots. A rash on the skin from worms occurs on the trunk, upper and lower extremities. With parasitosis, acne, acne and dry skin can also appear. White spots on the face cannot appear from worms and are a symptom of various skin diseases: lichen, vitiligo, hyperkeratosis. Worms in adults Worms in an adult are manifested by headache, apathy and insomnia. With parasitosis, heartburn, nausea and vomiting also appear. Symptoms of worms in women can be burning and redness in the genital area. Worms in childrenWith parasitosis, the child becomes restless, irritable and whiny, and also complains of nausea and pain in the navel. Other symptoms of worms in children:
In girls, worms can cause itching of the external genitalia. A doctor can identify worms in children and prescribe the correct scheme for their removal after a complete examination. What tests should be done for worms?For the diagnosis of parasitosis, the infectologist collects an anamnesis, conducts an examination and sends for blood and stool tests, scraping (smear) of the anal area. If necessary, an ultrasound examination (ultrasound) of the abdominal organs is performed. How to get rid of worms? In order to get rid of worms, the doctor prescribes antiparasitic drugs. The use of drugs against worms without prior consultation with a doctor, as well as alternative methods of treatment of parasitosis, for example, the use of pumpkin seeds from worms, can lead to the progression of pathology and the development of complications. When signs of infection with helminths appear, it is necessary to make an appointment with an infectious disease specialist. Prevention of wormsPrevention of worms consists in observing the rules of personal hygiene, timely deworming of pets. It is necessary to thoroughly wash vegetables and fruits before eating, thermally process meat and fish. Infectology at ON Clinic Uzhgorod |
Other symptoms of worms:
Complications of helminthic invasion are anemia, hypovitaminosis and intestinal obstruction.
The duration and frequency of taking drugs depends on the type of parasite; if the treatment regimen is violated, its effectiveness decreases. The infectologist can also prescribe vitamins, enterosorbents and drugs that normalize the functioning of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract.
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