Drug Resistant Fungus Confirmed – Spread via Towels and Sheets
(KMDL-FM) Another drug-resistant fungus is capturing the attention of disease specialists around the world. The fungus has been found in 29 countries, including the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the fungus can be spread via skin-to-skin contact, shared towels, bedsheets, and even shared hairbrushes.
According to details released by the CDC, the fungal infection causes an itchy, scaly rash that seems to manifest in a circular pattern on the skin. The major concern by the CDC is the fact that this particular malady does not respond to standard treatment.
Drug-Resistant Fungus Could Take Weeks to Clear
The fungi can also cause other skin rashes similar to athlete's foot. The difference is that, because of the drug-resistant nature of the fungus, those who come in contact with it could face symptoms for several weeks at a time, as opposed to several days.
The standard treatment that most medical professionals agree should "fix the problem" is a medicine called terbinafine. It can be administered as a cream directly applied to the affected skin, or a patient might opt for treatment in pill form.
The medical name of the fungus is Trichophyton indotineae. Most of us who grew up in the South and have experience with fungi will call this particular skin issue ringworm. As of now, the majority of cases of this hard-to-treat fungus have been reported in Europe. But cases of this particular malady have been confirmed in the United States since 2023.
What Are the Treatment Options if Standard Fungal Treatments Don't Work?
If you have been diagnosed with Trichophyton indotineae, medical professionals suggest you prepare yourself for alternative treatment therapies. Those should be administered through your dermatologist or an infectious disease specialist.
During your treatment, your care team might treat the fungus with oral itraconazole. In highly resistant cases, secondary choices like voriconazole may be used as well. Obviously, we are not trained in medicine, and this information should not be used as a substitute for actual medical care. See a real doctor; Doctor Google can't really help you, and WebMD will find a way to make it fatal. Not really, but it sure seems that way.
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Based on available information, these treatment protocols could take as long as eight to twelve weeks, which is considerably longer than the standard "few days to a week," which is a normal time frame for treatment of the more common ringworm infection.
CDC guidance suggests that you not use steroid-based treatment options such as hydrocortisone or clotrimazole-betamethasone. These treatments tend to suppress your skin's local immunity, which is not what you need if you're going to get through this infection.
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And remember, this particular strain of ringworm is highly contagious, so you'll need to exercise extra caution when you're around others. And as we mentioned, the fungus can be spread via towels, bed linens, clothing, and skin-to-skin contact.
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Gallery Credit: Kat Mykals
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