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Health
Neil Shaw & Sonia Sharma

Symptoms of unusual fungal disease that causes scaly rashes on body - and could become more common

A woman has shared the symptoms of a fungal disease that resulted in scaly rashes all over her body.

The 28-year-old contracted drug-resistant ringworm, also known as tinea, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She said she developed scaly rashes and sought medical attention once they began to spring up all over her body.

The strain of ringworm came back as Trichophyton indotineae, currently spreading through India and other parts of South Asia. The woman, who was pregnant, had not been abroad shortly before she was infected.

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A dermatologist prescribed antifungal treatment after her baby was born. A four-week course of the antifungal itraconazole cleared the rash, but made no difference to a 47-year-old woman who also had strange rashes, reports Wales Online.

The second woman was forced to seek medical assistance on three separate occasions at the end of last year. Around 20% of the rash-affected areas remained. Rashes also appeared in the form of widespread, scaly rings on the thighs and buttocks of her husband and son.

Health experts have said fungal infections are often resistant to medication and they are becoming more common in people amid warmer temperatures caused by climate change. David Denning, professor of infectious diseases in global health at the University of Manchester, said the "world is not yet prepared" for what will become an epidemic of skin infections due to higher temperatures driven by climate change and resistant medication.

He added: "There are not enough such laboratories, but there are rapid tests for resistance commercially available. The world is not yet prepared for what will likely become a slowly evolving epidemic of these skin infections.”

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