whats ringworm!! and how do i get rid of it?

Question

and how do you catch it, whats it look like as i may try and self diagnose myself

Answer 1

Ringworm is a fungal infection of skin. It is sped by contact with affected individuals or animals. treatment is any of the local anti-fungal ointments or creams. http://www.cat-world.com.au/images/Ringwo2.jpg

This is a typical lesion, however it is almost identical to a staphylococcal skin lesion, which would need antibiotics to treat it, so beware of self diagnosis!

Answer 2

ring worm is actually a fungus and any over the counter foot fungus or jock itch cream will work be careful with sharing house hold items The type of fungus that most commonly causes ringworm of the skin spreads from one person to another. You can get it by sharing towels, clothing, or sports equipment or by having direct contact with an infected person’s rash. Medicines that kill fungi are called antifungals. You can treat most cases of ringworm with antifungal creams or ointments (topical treatment). Many are available without a prescription. Your rash may start to clear up soon after you begin treatment, but it is important to use the medicine exactly as the label or your doctor says. This will help keep the infection from coming back. Usually you need to continue treatment for 2 to 4 weeks.

Answer 3

it's not a worm it's a fungi, usually can catch it from cats/dogs and looks like a rash in the shape of a red circle. if you have one (or more) then it could be ringworm if you have pets or have come into contact with them then the possibility is higher. you will need a anti fungal cream, or powder. try athletes foot powder as it's antifungle.

Answer 4

It is a skin fungus. It is nothing to panick about. It looks like a round reddish spot on your skin. On animals, it manifests itself as a loss of fur. It goes away by applying an anti-fungal cream dfor 2 weeks (dactarin, lamisil), morning and evening. Washing with betadine is also good. If the problem is very expanded, it is recommended toi take lamisil pills for 2 weeks.
Note: I am not sure if lamisil has the sme brand name where you live. Look it up on the net.

Answer 5

It looks like an inflammed red ring, usually around 1 to 2 inches in diameter.

You can buy stuff for it over the counter at your local pharmacy and usually clears up within a week. Don't worry, its all very contagious and stuff, but you won't die from it, so dont panic. Get a topical cream, give it a week and bobs your uncle!

Answer 6

It's a REALLY contagious skin fungus that you should NEVER try to diagnose yourself. Did I mention it's really contagious? It usually looks like a round, red/bruisy area with a whitish ring around it. It is tremendously itchy, and did I mention contagious? The doctor can prescribe you an appropriate anti-fungal pill or cream if you have it.

Answer 7

A fungus skin infection. The general advice is to go to a doctor and he will advise an anifungal cream; but, many cannot afford a doctor, so soak the area in full strength vinegar. It will burn at first, but it will get rid of the infection better really than what the doctor prescibes.

Answer 8

It's a highly contagious fungus that cause a scabby,itchy ring on your skin. It is not a worm.
The medication for it is toxic if you are pregnant.

Answer 9

from someones's experience...

I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice -- please see a doctor if you want medical advice. I am just speaking from my experience and that of a number of other wrestlers who successfully and quickly got rid of their ringworm in this way. If not treated, ringworm easily spreads at tournaments and practices so it is important to hit it hard and aggressively. Also, on the subject of disclaimers, I assume that both Lamisil and Selsun Blue are trademarks of their respective owners, and this is not intended to be a commercial for them or an endorsement, but these products do seem to work very well against ringworm.

The incubation period for ringworm is about 4-7 days; my ringworm appeared on Wednesday (March 17, 2004) as suspicious zits which turned into rings on Thursday-Friday; my first match with the wrestler who had ringworm was on the preceding Friday.

If you are exposed to ringworm at a tournament or practice, you may or may not get it; often, if there is no irritated or broken skin, and you keep the mats clean and shower quickly after wrestling, no ringworm will develop. I've wrestled a guy at practice and afterwards saw the rings on his arm, but I never got it from him.

However, to be safe, to avoid spreading it elsewhere on your body, or to others you wrestle with (or to a partner), it's a good idea to check your skin during the week after exposure to see if anything pops up. If you never got it before, it usually starts looking like a pimple but sometimes will itch (a distinctive itch which you recognize if you get it again). Then the "zit" expands to form a ring, thus the name (it is not a worm but the tinea fungus which causes it, same as the athletes foot and jock itch organisms). As the ring expands (if untreated), the middle will appear to clear up, and the red border will expand outward, sometimes merging with neighboring rings.

It is spread by skin-to-skin contact. The Lehigh University wrestling team (according to an article found several years ago on a website) studied the various treatments and concluded that the most effective treatment is as follows. As soon as a suspicious zit or ring is found, wash it thoroughly and remove any crust. Or take a shower. The washing will also help the medication penetrate. If there is a crust, you remove the crust and apply the medication to the exposed skin. Sometimes, if you scratch it after a shower, it will appear to ooze lymph; wipe this away before applying any cream. Ed likes to use acetone to increase penetration as well, which probably helps a lot but I've only tried that a few times (a liquid mixture of acetone and tolnaftate by the trade name Fungi-Clear is sold for treatment of nail fungus but reportedly is also effective against ringworm, and I've used it to prep the ringworm area before applying Lamisil so that both the tolnaftate and the terbinafine can act on the fungus). Acetone is also the active ingredient in nail polish remover and tolnaftate is found in other athletes foot products as well.

Lehigh swears by Selsun Blue (the shampoo) for cleaning and prepping the ringworm; it is said to kill and reduce the spread of the fungus even though it is labeled for dandruff use -- the menthol is also tingly and antiseptic. You can use that shampoo like soap. I've also tried iodine shampoo (which says it kills ringworm on the label), but that's not as easily available. If you don't wash the ringworm before applying the cream, penetration will be poor and the ringworm will persist for much longer, and itching may increase. Also, the washing helps to remove the dead upper layers of skin on which the organism feasts.

After washing, dry the area with something disposable, like a tissue, or if a large area, use a towel which will be washed in hot water and dried in the drier after use (along with singlets and other wrestling gear that were exposed to the organism).

Then apply terbinafine hydrochloride cream (Lamisil AT 1% cream, with a picture of a foot on the package, not the weaker jock itch spray) at least twice a day. It is very effective to place a band-aid on the area so the cream doesn't rub off and is concentrated on the area, if it is practical to do so. Applying the cream as soon as the ringworm pops up will usually get rid of it in 3-8 days; if treatment is delayed it could take much longer.

According to the labeling on the package, treatment should be continued for one week. If you let the ringworm grow and spread awhile before starting treatment, it will take longer to get rid of -- you should continue treatment until all the ringworm is gone. If you stop too early it will come back, and may be harder to get rid of. Sometimes the skin will still be a little shiny even after the ringworm itself is gone; it is OK to stop treatment at this time, but the safest course is to keep treating each area until a few days after the last symptoms are present (i.e. no itching, no rings, no pimples). If I get ringworm on the forearm, I have found that for some reason this takes longer to get rid of, but it will go away quicker if I shave off the hair in the immediate vicinity of the ringworm, then apply the Lamisil and cover with a a small bandage.

If it gets into the beard or nails, it is said to be much harder to get rid of, and may require a trip to a doctor for a prescription of an oral medication (oral Lamisil, griseofulvin or some other pill). I never got it there; the first time I got ringworm was in June 2001 on my leg; I made an appointment to see the doctor but while I was waiting the two weeks I scraped off some skin from the lesion area and looked at it under my home microscope; I saw the same hyphae which are seen in web and encyclopedia articles on ringworm. Then I experimented with various over-the-counter athletes foot, jock itch and ringworm products, including the Lotrimin (no butenafine) which the doctor prescribed (she took one look at the sketch I made from the microscope and said I had already diagnosed it). None of these medications was particularly effective; the Lotrimin was making the ringworm gradually fade but after a few weeks of this I went back to the web and found that Lehigh University article which noted, among other things, that the Lamisil is fungicidal (kills the fungus), while the other preparations they tested were only fungistats (they stop it from reproducing but don't kill it). The wrestler I got ringworm from in March 2004 was also using a fungistat, and it was not rendered non-contagious since I caught it from him; while after 48 hours of treatment with Lamisil a lesion is supposedly rendered non-contagious (but should still be covered when wrestling). When I switched to the Lamisil, the result was dramatic, which is why I've used that treatment ever since. I applied it for the first time late in the afternoon, and the following morning I removed the bandage, and much of the ringworm had already flaked off, and the rest of it was gone in 3-5 days, just in time for Hillside.