Talk:Ringworm

can

can we discuss treatment on wikipedia? I don't have any references, other than the packages themselves...

rinworm is funny.

Maybe links to actual medical references would be a good idea?

"Burn it off with bleach"??? 69.9.16.28 22:53, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I really dont think burning it of with bleach will work..as opposed to ussing other medications/creams for it.(06-5-2006)

I had ring worm as a kid several times, we had a lot of cows... for animals such as horses, cows, the best product to treat ringworm was coppertox a green sticky solution. From using more than one type of antifungal, I will attest that nothing works as well on humans either, it seems rather safe (no ill personal effects), although I am ceratin the chemicals is quite toxic. It seems to have a limited range of application, that is its antifungal properties are excelent for ringworm but do not always cover other fungal infections (personal experience).(Jul 29, 2006)

Hey, I'd just like to add for anyone with a ringworm-type infection that lamisil once is AMAZING. You apply it once, and it removes the infection within a week. Definitely recommended (just thought this could come in useful if someone had the infection and decided to visit wikipedia about it) 121.45.206.107 (talk) 12:45, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

ringworm and fatties

Why is it that so many fat people have ring worm? does it reproduce faster when there's more fat to digest or something?

I discovered that ring worm is very sensitive to humidity. If you are able to lower the humidity in your room, that can be all it takes to get rid of it.

I had been getting ring worm every summer. But, since I play sports several times a week, even with diligent application of antifungal medication I couldn't get ride of it. I discovered that if I just lower the air conditioner setting so that my room temperature stays under 75 degrees F the ring worm would clear up within a week without using any medication.

The way this works is that as the air goes through the cooling coils the moisture condenses out. (Ever notice how cars will drip water when the AC is on.) I imagine you can use a dehumidifier and achieve the same effect.

"Fat people" get ringworm more often because they sweat more. The fungus thrives on the fatty acids humans secrete in their sweat, so anything causing more sweating (higher temperature, greater humidity, more fat to lug around) causes more ringworm. You'd be surprised that 90-100% of humans have the fungus on their skin normally, but it only "activates" in those "sweaty" conditions I mentioned. Check eMedicine, MedicineNet, or MayoClinic.com to learn more.Danierrr 02:49, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Hmmmm Interesting. This 50 year old "Fatty" has never had ringworm. Perhaps regular bathing works as a preventative measure? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.36.10.135 (talk) 17:16, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a doctor

"Terbinafine is highly effective for Tinea Corporis. It treats itching, burning, cracking, and scaling that accompany this condition. It cures most ringworm. Do not use it for the nails or scalp. Apply it once a day (morning or night) for one week. It should heal up by then or a little after."

Wikipedia should not be providing medical advice as if it were a doctor, this could lead to all sorts of horrible things if the advice turns out to be wrong. A more generalised statement like "Terbinafine is often applied once a day as treatment, but consult your doctor" or similar would be far more appropriate than the above paragraph which sounds like absolute medical advice.

if no one has any objections I would like to reword this, im thinking something like:

"Terbinafine is highly effective for Tinea Corporis. It is often used to treat the itching, burning, cracking, and scaling that accompany this condition. It cures most ringworm, but should not be used for the nails or scalp. Treatment generaly involves application once a day (morning or night) for one week, but as always you should consult your doctor for specific treatment." -- Mloren 13:02, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

I deleted an obvious advertisement. 65.102.39.66 01:33, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Sexual Partners and Ring Worm?

Choose sex partners wisely and practice monagamy or abstinence. Is there any reason this reference is here? Is there any documented, referenced accounts of contracting ringworm from not practicing monagamy? Or abstinence!? Is this warning listed under chicken pox also, and other commonly spread infections among children? WilliamRoberts 10:10, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Symptoms

For about a week now I've had an itchy rash on my face. It consists of some large pimple-like lesions—they are red all the way through but my mom thinks they're ringworm and insists that we bleach the whole house to get rid of the spores (not to mention wash our towls after every single shower and wash our sheets every day and mop the floors every day till the bleach is COMING OUT OF OUR EARS). Is this really ringworm and is this REALLY necessary?? Scorpionman 03:38, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Total rewrite required and restructure of Clinical Mycology

This article entitled ringworm then discusses anything but ringworm. Ringworm is just one specific type of fungal infection occuring on the skin and causing, as the name requires, raised red rings, with central healing and often some flaking of skin. It has nothing to do with atheletes feet nor fungal infection of the nails, nor indeed tinea versicolor (a yeast rather than a fungus) - none of which forms the rings of ringworm. This article in fact tries to discuss fungal/yeast skin infection in general (mycology culturing and treatment) and therefore of conditions often described as "tineas". Tinea corporis/faciei/manuum are just descriptors of where the fungal infection occurs rather than being distinct in their aetiology (ie unlike Tinea pedis, Tinea unguinum, and Tinea versicolor which have very specific species involved and their own characteristic appearances). Much of current Ringworm contents would be better in a Clinical Mycology article - Mycology currently is the general biology field rather than the clinical branch of clinical microbiology biology, and while Dermatophyte article addresses "parasitic fungus that infects the skin", it is about the organisms rather than the resulting diseases and general approach to investigating and treating.

Before launching into this, could people add comments below of other aspects of the restructuring required for me to bear in mind, and I will then have a go in the next few days :-) David Ruben ^Talk 22:18, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Clinical mycology seems like a reasonable "root" for much of the information currently in ringworm. As an aside, the "references" section is woefully limited (as I'm sure you noticed). If you want any help after the split, let me know. -- MarcoTolo 23:02, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

I think restructuring is a good idea and I support creating a clinical mycology article. Dermatophyte can give an overview of the various fungi (with specifics if there aren't individual articles on the genus or species), and ringworm can just be about the disease (probably just the human aspects, I'm thinking of creating a ringworm in animals article). Incidentally, there is also a substub called dermatophytosis that should probably just be redirected to ringworm. --Joelmills 04:27, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

None of the tree references given were "reliable sources" and they support few the statements in the article (as if that would matter), I therefore removed them and tagged the article with {{unsourced}}. I also added the {{disputed}} tag. I kept the references here:

• "Ringworm". Columbia University. Retrieved 30 December 2005.
• Ringworm: Fungus Or Real Worm Under My Skin
• Tinea images Dermnet.com.

Note that there is another article, Tinea corporis which I think is a synonym for ringworm? (I may be wrong). /SvNH 04:32, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

OK I've been WP:BOLD and transfered all the lists of different types of superficial fungal infections to Dermatophytosis, as clearly athlete's foot and nail infections are neither rings nor raised on skin surface (hence initial thought that there might be a worm underneath).

As per convention, articles on diseases are separate from articles on the biology of causative organisms. Hence mycology is study of fungi and their diseases are mycosis, fungi that grow parasitically on the skin/nails are dermatophytes and cause dermatophytosis infections.

I agree SvNH, that all cases of ringworm on the body are Tinea corporis, but not all cases of Tinea corporis appear as ringworm. Also infection in the beard area may reasonably be call ringworm if composed of raised red rings with central healing. However macerated (thickened pale damp) split skin in a deep neck opr chin skin crease may have appearances more in keeping the athlete's feet in the web spaces between the toes, than raised red rings. So Ringworm is more of a description of an appearance that allows diagnosis (of a fungal infection) whereas Tinea corporis or Tinea capitis are more classifications by location. The term for nail infections (onychomycosis) is both specific for location (nails) and a given set of possible appearances -which does not include raised red rings, but rather of discolouration, thickening and lifting of the nails (onycholysis).David Ruben ^Talk 03:24, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

New initial image needed

Image:Tinea_capitis.JPG doesn't show the disease very clearly. Jidanni 22:44, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Agree - there is no ring, no raised red margin and no central healling. A good picture of Tinea capitis, but it is not ringworm. Removed picture to Tinea capitis & Dermatophytosis David Ruben ^Talk 03:27, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Microsporum canis?

$Insertformulahere$

I may be confused here, but no mention of fungal species causing ringworm is complete without the MOST COMMON cause of it, Microsporum canis. Which despite its name fluorishes more commonly in CATS.

Also not mentioned as a (PRESCRIPTION) treatment is Itraconozale. I have been told that oral medication is THE Front line, at least in domestic (Pet, not sure about food) animals. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.73.197.189 (talk) 15:14, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

if left untreated

Mention what will happen if Ringworm is left untreated. Will it eventually "consume" the entire body? Also mention the pros and cons of using those ointments vs. braving it out. Jidanni (talk) 01:15, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh, see #What if untreated? Jidanni (talk) 04:19, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

And the results are in!: Moral of story: in the end you'll just end up having to use much more medicine to counter its already advanced and expanded front lines, if you don't want to look like Death Wish III (unrelated, but name sounds scary enough ☺). Jidanni (talk) 01:09, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Deletion of sources and references

Please be careful when revamping articles.

I've noticed that some sources have been deleted, and now some of the content is actually false. (e.g. [http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Ringworm&oldid=52795700 Tinea is not always contagious, even though the actual article say so). — Enigma55 ^{(talk • email) 03:51, 5 October 2007 (UTC)}

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 16:20, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Possible copyright violation

The first paragraph of the "treatment" section didn't sound like the usual sort of Wikipedia text:

The treatment for ringworm is one of the many effective topical antifungal creams, such as miconazole (Tinactin) or clotrimazole (Lotrimin). Several of these antifungal creams are now available without a prescription. Treatment may require several weeks. Only by treating for at least one week after the resolution of symptoms can one guarantee eradication. (Pets can be treated with the same medicines, but this is difficult, since they often don't get a rash with their infections. Contact your pet's veterinarian to get up-to-date information on the best treatment for animals).

So I googled a short phrase and found this page, timestamped July 1997:

http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=756

That page has this text:

The treatment for ringworm is one of the many effective topical antifungal creams, such as miconazole (Tinactin) or clotrimazole (Lotrimin). Several of these antifungal creams are now available without a prescription. Treatment may require several weeks. Only by treating for at least one week after the resolution of symptoms can one guarantee eradication. (Pets can be treated with the same medicines, but this is difficult, since they often don't get a rash with their infections. Contact your pet's veterinarian to get up-to-date information on the best treatment for animals).

--12.48.196.9 18:31, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. As per policy, I deleted the copyvio from 14th June edit on sight, in any case the subsequent paragraph says essentially the same thing. David Ruben ^Talk 23:03, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Folk remedies

This paragraph sounds rather harsh, it makes it sound like anything but medical advice will probably hurt you. It also notes about "folk" remedies "that the efficacy of such treatments are not recognized outside of anecdotal reports". Which may be true in some cases but defiantly not all alternative treatments. Tea Tree oil for instance has articles all over the net including research articles that says it is effective in treating ringworm as well as being a general fungal . For example http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/f-w98/teatrees.html and wikipedia's own page on tea tree oil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_tree_oil#Medicinal_use mentions its "efficacy".

216.254.91.114 (talk) 21:38, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

If you want to include a reference mentioning tea tree oil as a common folk remedy but not giving directions, instructions, advice or amounts to use, go for it! However, keep in mind that past versions of that parargraph had been edited to take out medical advice added by well-meaning editors who thought giving exact instructions on how to use tea tree oil to treat ringworm was appropriate. That we cannot leave in because it constitutes medical advice. Past versions of this article and other articles on pet medical issues such as ticks often wind up with edits telling people to use this household cleanser or that easily obtained chemical and more often than not, that advice is foolish and dangerous. I probably could have softened the wording a bit but I was getting tired of editors using articles on topics such as these to insert potentially disasterous advice. Whatever you link to, be sure it meets the reliability standard and be mindful of the potential harm to people and animals that a link to an casual recipe for a cure could cause. I'm sure there are many decent references and quotes you could find to support the efficacy of tea tree oil as a folk remedy and the theory behind it! As to Wikipedia's own article, one wikipedia article cannot cite another to reference a statement but... if that article already has a reference that supports the contention of it's efficacy, well, by all means nab that citation!

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Lisapollison (talk • contribs) 22:56, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

I just had the time to look critically at the material on tea tree oil linked to above and I have to say it is rather underwhelming and hardly merits inclusion. All it says is that in an unnamed and unreferenced study, some test subjects with Ringworm acheived some relief using a tea tree oil preparation. The writer was careful to note that the tea tree oil was NOT a cure for Ringworm. It's an interesting article but odd for university-hosted site in that it offers no proof or references for any of the claims made. The article is also written under the auspices of The Linus Pauling Institute which in and of itself is telling. I would therefore suggest that the article fails to meet the reliable source criteria and that we need to look further if we want to include any specific facts about Tea Tree Oil and its uses to treat ringworm.LiPollis (talk) 23:07, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

What if untreated?

Seems to me the article is missing a statement of what would happen if ringworm is untreated. I represent a mother in a family law matter. The separated father refuses to give their child medicine for ringworm, partly because he thinks children shouldn't get pills, partly to irritate mother. I came here looking for what would happen without treatment, but was disappointed to see there was nothing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.232.211.246 (talk) 00:43, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not provide legal or medical advice. Please see the general disclaimer. Gentgeen (talk) 14:07, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Gentgeen is correct. In fact, one of the reasons I have this article on my watchlist is to prevent medical advice from creeping into the article although I may have contribuited to the problem myself by linking to some statements of fact about prevention. I would suggest that you simply google the terms 'Ringworm" and "untreated". I just did and dozens of very helpful articles popped up. Wikipedia is different from sites like WebMD in that it is an encyclopedia and not a self-help site. As editors, we are supposed to only provide information and not instructions. You should keep in mind that ANYONE can edit a wikipedia article and as a result, some things can slip in that may in fact be factually incorrect. In the area of medicine and diseases, Folk remedies are often documented in order to cover the topic but such remedies shouldn't be presented in such a way as to advocate oa treatment or represent instructions for a treatment. Your best bet is to have your client seek information from a qualified medical professional who can advise you about both medications and natural remedies. If you need further info for your own handling of the case, I suggest using the Google Books Search function. That will give you published info, page numbers, ISBN numbers and so on in case you need hard copies of the info you find there. LiPollis (talk) 18:46, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Just like all the other information in the article, there is nothing special or mysterious that implies one must not mention what might happen if Ringworm goes untreated. Is there some taboo like with AIDS?. This is the second request for a statement, any little statement on the matter. The article's lack of the finale is quite obvious.

Therefore will some of the M.D.s in the audience please pick one or two of those Google references as a basis for a paragraph about what will happen if left untreated. We need you to pick the best of the Google references else we won't get the balanced view we came here for. Thanks.

• It will get worse, leading to x, y, and z?
• It will go away on its own?
• Both

My gamble is that sooner or later my entire body will become inside the ring, and then nobody will notice anymore. Jidanni (talk) 04:31, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=What+if+ringworm+is+left+untreated&btnG=Google+Search —Preceding unsigned comment added by Oursurged (talk • contribs) 22:47, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

I added a very brief and referenced sentence on what will happen if left untreated under the paragraph on Treatment. It's no great mystery. It was information implied in other parts of the article and available to anyone who can use google. No further info is really necessary because the consequences of leaving it untreated depend on the type of ringworm, the area infected, the person's medical condition/history and much more. Such answers are better left to be found on medical websites or ideally, directly from your own doctor.LiPollis (talk) 16:44, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Second person instructional tone

The "Prevention" section takes on a second person instructional tone, telling the reader what to do. We are an encyclopedia, we don't instruct, we inform. We also don't talk directly at our readers, third person is always preferred to second person tone. Gentgeen (talk) 14:05, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Would you like to see the language corrected or the section removed? LiPollis (talk) 18:25, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks to the editors who restructured that section appropriately. I did, however, have to remove some material promoting a product called gymnsoap since it's inclusion appeared to be soley for the purposes of advertising the product and did not add much to the discussion.LiPollis (talk) 16:15, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Removed "dog urine" as treatment for ringworm

I removed the following unsourced comment which appears to be vandalism, since I could not find any source that actually suggests this, i.e. be searching Yahoo, etc:

"There is lots of cures for this kind of infection. The most common cure is dog urine. Doctors reccommend dog urine because there is a mineral that helps the ringworm not to spread any bigger than it is.It also helps decrease the size of the infection. It usually takes about 24 hours to heal after the urine is applied to the surface of the skin where the ringworm is located."

Lazarus666 (talk) 08:28, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

thanks for taking care of that. Unfortunately, I don't think that was straight vandalism. You find all kinds of weird folk remedies for ringworm on the net and they usually involve the use of weak acids or in the opposite direction mild alkaline solutions. The faulty logic is that these preparations will "burn" away the ringworm. You also see remedies that use petroleum based products. I have this article on my watchlist as part of a group I keep an eye on that are likely to have potentially harmful folk remedies added to the content. Dog urine, being a mild acid would fit the bill for a potential folk remedy for Ringworm. In fact, urine is a common folk remedy for skin ailments.LiPollis (talk) 16:55, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Bold text athlete's foot

== Headline text == ATHLETES FOOT this disease is a nother form of ringworm and thus can be prevented with the same measures too!