How to treat ringworm

  Tinea corporis refers to ringworm infection of the epidermis occurring on areas other than the scalp, hair, palmoplantar, and nails, and is clinically distinguished by circumscribed, polycyclic lesions with marked marginal active inflammation, accompanied by significant pruritus. The treatment of ringworm is divided into topical drug therapy and and systemic drug therapy.  For topical drug therapy, azole and acrylamide antifungal topical drugs can be used for tinea corporis, and topical preparations containing traditional antifungal ingredients such as salicylic acid, benzoic acid, and rezosin can also be used for tinea corporis. In addition to the standard selection of drugs, extra attention needs to be paid to giving adequate treatment according to the requirements of the treatment course. In general, ringworm requires more than 2 weeks of medication to kill the fungus on the surface of the body, and after the lesions have faded to a normal skin appearance, the medication can be continued for 2 weeks to achieve “saturation therapy” and reduce the risk of recurrence. In addition, in infants and young children or skin folds, due to the thin and sensitive skin, attention should be paid to the selection of less irritating, less concentrated topical drugs, tinctures and drugs containing exfoliating ingredients are prohibited.  Systemic drug therapy is only used for some patients with prolonged disease, large lesions, and poor efficacy of topical drug therapy alone; it is usually combined with oral antifungal drugs that tend to accumulate in epidermal cells such as itraconazole and terbinafine on the basis of effective use of topical antifungal drugs.