Two separate case of severe roundworm that did not respond to antifungal handling are discussed in a new case report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) . It marks the first time that known case of drug - resistant ringworm have been identified in the US , and has sparked fears that the pathogen responsible for may be make movement into new soil .
Contrary to what its name suggests , ringworm has nothing to do with worms . It ’s afungalskin infection , due to a grouping of organism called dermatophyte molds . The disease is also referred to astinea , and it unremarkably manifests as an itchy , circular roseola .
Many different area of the cutis can be affected , often include the hands , arms , and branch . Ringworm of the feet is more commonly referred to as “ athlete ’s foot ” . Dermatophytes are also responsible for infections of the groin and buttocks , the evocatively named “ jock itchiness ” . Ringworm of the scalp , which is more common in children than adults , can lead to patch of whisker release .
Circular lesions like this are typical of ringworm.Image credit: Asurnipal viaWikimedia Commons(CC BY-SA 4.0)
tinea is highly transmittable . you’re able to capture it from close touch with infected people or animals . It can also circularise from one area of the organic structure to another , and fungal spores can spread between hoi polloi via surface such as towels and bedding .
Infections are rarely serious or fatal , but it ’s still not a pleasant condition , and there is a peril of junior-grade bacterial infections if the rash and skin lesion get bad .
Around 40 unlike species of fungus kingdom can cause roundworm , but most of them belong to to the genusTrichophyton . The two cases place in the CDC report were incur to have been make byTrichophyton indotineae , a comparatively new add-on to the fungous kin which has never before been seen in a patient in the US .
What makesT. indotineaeso relate for health officials is that it is oftenresistant to terbinafine , a very common drug that is used to treat ringworm and other fungal infection . Indeed , the two patient described in the case written report were both treated with this drug and did not see an betterment in their symptoms .
Patient A in the CDC report card developed the characteristic rash in 2021 whilst pregnant . After the birthing of her child in other 2022 , she was treat with terbinafine . When this did n’t work , she was given a unlike drug , itraconazole , which did clear up the transmission . She is still being monitor in guinea pig it come back .
affected role B first noticed symptom while visiting Bangladesh in summer 2022 . Back in the US , she was treated with several different creams and medications , include terbinafine . finally , the doc turned to a dissimilar drug , griseofulvin , which ameliorate the symptoms by about 80 per centum . Patient B – as well as her husband and boy , who may also now be infect – is still being monitored in case she involve further medication .
The two cases were put forward to the CDC by a New York City dermatologist in February 2023 , and an investigating was started . Since these two example are separated by both clip and geography , it ’s not recollect that they are directly related . However , since Patient A had no history of international travel , it does point to transmission ofT. indotineaetaking place inside the US , which has not been seen before .
The ghost of antimicrobial resistance has been hang over the medical field for some year now . We ’re used to hearing about this in reference tobacterial contagion , but drug - resistive kingdom Fungi are another potentialthreat to public wellness . The CDC stress that suspectedT. indotineaecases should be reported to local or DoS public wellness bureau , and reiterate the continue grandness of avoiding the misuse and overutilization of antifungal drugs .
Ringworm is gratefully not the kind of disease you might associate with aThe Last of Us - style disaster . But any hypnotism that drug - immune strains are spreading , no matter how rarely , is something health officials are going to take very seriously indeed .
The subject is published in the CDC’sMorbidity and Mortality Weekly Report .
