Ringworm is a skin disease caused by a fungal infection. There are many causes of ringworm, but they mainly come from poor personal hygiene habits, unsanitary living environments, and infection from people who have ringworm. Treating ringworm with medication helps patients improve the symptoms caused by the disease and improve their quality of life.
1. What disease is ringworm?
Ringworm (also known as tinea infection) can appear on many skin areas of the body such as: scalp, leg skin, thighs, nails, between the toes... Ringworm appears most often during season changes such as: between winter and spring or spring and summer. Because at this time, the hot, humid weather with prolonged drizzle is a favorable condition for the virus to reproduce and develop.
The most prominent feature of ringworm is a red rash with many small blisters forming in the shape of a coin, the patient feels itchy and uncomfortable in the damaged skin area. It itches a lot at night, especially when the weather is hot and the patient sweats a lot. Severe itching causes the patient to scratch and scratch, causing blisters to burst, easily causing the ringworm-affected skin area to become infected with yellow pustules and blisters.
People with ringworm can have red rashes in one area of the body and then spread to other locations such as the face, neck, chest, groin, etc. and if not treated properly, the disease can spread throughout the body, causing skin lesions or eczema, leaving scars in the damaged skin area and spreading to others. So can ringworm be cured? Let's find the answer in the next section.
2. Can ringworm be cured? How to treat ringworm?
Can ringworm be cured? is a question of many people. According to experts, ringworm is a common, benign dermatological disease that does not leave dangerous complications and is not difficult to treat. To treat ringworm, it is necessary to combine local treatment and systemic treatment
- For topical treatment: Use antifungal medications applied to the skin affected by ringworm such as: Miconazol, Ketoconazole, Clotrimazole, etc. To avoid superinfection, patients with ringworm should avoid scratching, or breaking blisters on the skin affected by ringworm.
- Systemic treatment when the skin is damaged by ringworm: Antifungal medications such as Itraconazole, nizoral... To reduce itching, patients with ringworm can use antihistamines. If there is a superinfection, use antibiotics as prescribed by your doctor.
To avoid recurrence, people with ringworm need to strictly follow the doctor's prescribed treatment.
3. Notes when using medicine to treat ringworm
- People with ringworm need to apply medicine to skin areas damaged by ringworm fungus regularly to reduce itching and spreading symptoms to other areas of the body.
- To achieve the best results in treatment and avoid recurrence, patients with ringworm need to be persistent in taking medicine: apply medicine continuously. Apply 2-3 times a day until the skin heals, then apply the medicine to the ringworm affected area for at least 2 more weeks to avoid recurrence.
- The patient must apply the medicine according to the instructions because if it is applied incorrectly, applied improperly, applied too thickly, applied too strongly, applied through healthy or tender skin, it will reduce the effectiveness of treatment, can make the disease easily spread to other areas of the body or cause excessive bleeding, burns, etc.
- Topical medications to treat ringworm may cause mild allergic reactions. After stopping the drug, these allergic reactions will go away.
- Do not arbitrarily use antibiotics to treat ringworm without a doctor's prescription.
- Systemic antifungal drugs have many side effects such as: abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, elevated liver enzymes, impaired liver and kidney function, reduced glomerular filtration rate... Therefore, caution should be used when using systemic antifungal drugs to treat people with ringworm. People with ringworm should absolutely not use systemic antifungal medications without a doctor's prescription. Tell your doctor about your liver and kidney diseases before using medications to treat ringworm.
- During treatment, if the condition does not improve, becomes more severe, becomes infected, has many pustules, swelling and pain, talk to your doctor for appropriate alternative treatment methods.
Please dial HOTLINE for more information or register for an appointment HERE. Download MyVinmec app to make appointments faster and to manage your bookings easily.
To arrange an appointment, please call HOTLINE or make your reservation directly HERE. You may also download the MyVinmec app to schedule appointments faster and manage your reservations more conveniently.
