Mycosis - what is it? Disease of mycoses: causes, symptoms, prevention and treatment

One of the infectious lesions of the skin is mycosis. What is mycosis, can intelligently explain any dermatologist. Its causative agent is conditionally pathogenic organisms and anthropophilic fungi.

Description of the problem

One of the main causes of mycosis is the activity of fungi. Their spores fall into the layers of the subcutaneous tissue and skin, they can settle on mucous membranes, in the airways, in the lungs.

The severity of the course of the disease will depend on the type of fungi and their localization. It is worth noting that any infection, in which the defenses of the body are reduced, can contribute to the development of a disease called mycosis. What is a fungal infection and what happens at this time with the body, every person should know. After all, not only the skin, but also the hair, the nails, the mucous membrane of the eyes, the esophagus, the sexual organs can be affected.

In most cases mycosis is characterized by a chronic course. In 95% of cases, they are secondary forms that developed against a background of other diseases.

Types of lesions

Specialists distinguish several forms of mycoses. They depend on the site of the lesion. So, separately I can distinguish mycosis:

- the scalp;

- trunk skin;

- hand skin;

- facial skin;

- stop;

- nails;

- internal organs.

Currently, experts allocate more than 500 fungi, which trigger the onset of the disease. At the same time over the past decade, the number of patients who know themselves what is mycosis has doubled. According to research, the number of people suffering from various types of fungal infections in Russia is about 30-40%. Most often there are mycoses of nails, feet and brushes. People with lesions of the scalp and smooth skin integrate less often for help.

Causes of the disease

In most cases, infection with mycosis occurs when contact with sick people. But other ways of transmitting the disease are possible. For example, mycosis of the hair can begin when infected from animals. In some cases, fungi are part of the normal microflora, but with a decrease in immunity, they begin to multiply excessively. So, for example, begins urogenital candidiasis (known as thrush).

Experts say that the main reason for such a wide spread of the disease is a poor awareness of people about the ways of infection, the first symptoms of the disease and preventive measures. Because of this, people turn to professionals at a time when mycosis is passing into a chronic form. What is mycosis, every dermatologist knows.

Most often, infection occurs:

- with close contact with a sick person;

- communication with sick animals;

- frequent visits to public baths, saunas, swimming pools;

- use of personal hygiene products of other people.

The provoking factors

Often it is not enough to know about the main ways of infection. It is also necessary to understand who is at risk and in which cases the probability of infection is highest.

For example, those who have excessive sweating of legs and hands suffer from fungal lesions most often. Do not forget that spores of fungi can penetrate deep layers of subcutaneous tissue and through wounds.

Using other people's personal care products can also provoke mycosis. What is happening at the same time and why infection is possible is easy to understand if you know that on your personal items there are parts of the skin. When they are used, they are transferred to a healthy person. The source of infection can be someone else's hairbrush, a toothbrush, shoes, clothes.

In addition, the provoking factors include long-term use of certain medications, a polluted environment, increased levels of radiation and other factors that lead to a weakening of the defenses of the body.

Fungal incubation

Of course, the contact of healthy cutaneous or mucous membranes of a person with spores of fungi is far from always ending with infection. In most cases, normal immunity prevents the engraftment of these microorganisms.

But there are a number of factors, because of which a person still has to learn what is mycosis. They include:

- features of the feet (for example, flat feet, narrow distance between the fingers, their deformation);

- excessive dryness of the skin;

Increased sweating;

- violation of the integrity of the skin (wounds, cuts, intertrigo, rubbing);

- wearing clothing made of synthetic materials, tight shoes;

- elderly age;

- dry skin.

The engraftment of fungi occurs more quickly if a person's immunity is weakened and there are a number of concomitant problems. These include diseases of the cardiovascular system, endocrine pathologies, oncohematological problems, immunodeficiency states.

Symptoms of the disease

Unfortunately, not always people are able to independently suspect the development of a fungal disease. After all, the manifestation of infection may differ depending on the location of its localization. But the main symptoms of the disease are the following:

- the appearance of diaper rash;

- Skin peeling, redness;

- permanent itching of affected areas of smooth skin;

- itching of the skin of the feet, accompanied by the appearance of bubbles and flaking of the skin;

- irritation between the fingers;

- the appearance of various spots on the skin;

- structure change, peeling, peeling of nails.

Separately, the lesion of smooth skin is distinguished - superficial mycosis. Treatment, causes, symptoms will depend on its kind. Specialists can distinguish between keratomycosis and dermatomycosis (dermatophytosis). The first type of disease is characterized by the fact that not only skin areas are affected, but also hair, nails. For example, pityriasis is keratomycosis. Dermatophytosis is caused by mold fungi, for example mycosis of the feet. Candida affects the mucous membranes, the airways and internal organs.

Tactics of treatment

Often patients with fungal infections turn to doctors already in cases when the disease passes into a chronic form. In this case, an integrated approach is required. It is important that the diagnosis and treatment of mycosis of the skin and nails was correctly performed. It is necessary to remove the pathogenic organism from the damaged zones and to eliminate the factors contributing to its reproduction.

In chronic forms, doctors generally choose a systemic approach. It is necessary not only to use local means, but preparations intended for oral administration. Such systemic therapy allows to organize the optimal penetration of medicines into the locations of mushroom deployment. They accumulate in tissues in an amount significantly exceeding the necessary concentrations for the suppression of microorganisms. They are also there for some time after the completion of therapy.

Before prescribing drugs, the doctor should tell the patient what a mycosis is. He can also explain that it is desirable to first establish what kind of fungus affected the body. This will select the most effective drugs. If this is not possible, then a broad spectrum of means is appointed.

Necessary medicines

Modern achievements allow quickly and effectively cope with fungal diseases. For these purposes, local agents such as Clotrimazole, Miconazole, Econazole, and Terbinafine can be used. For the treatment of nails are recommended "Batrafen", "Irunin", "Loceril". The drugs are available in the form of sprays or creams.

At night, doctors recommend treating problem areas with sulfur salicylic ointment. In the morning on them it is necessary to put 2% iodine solution. But these are not all ways of treating mycosis.

In most cases it is necessary to use systemic drugs. One of the safest is Griseofulvin. It is used even in the treatment of children. Also popular are such drugs as "Terbinafine", "Itraconazole", "Ketoconazole".

Traditional methods of therapy

Before you are interested in alternative methods of treatment, you need to understand that it is impossible to get rid of fungi without special medications. But nevertheless, there are quite a few recipes that help treat mycosis.

Treatment of foot mycoses, for example, is recommended to be carried out with the help of trays prepared from yarrow, burdock, wormwood, plantain. Water should not be hot, but warm. After the bath, all the steamed areas should be cleaned and, if possible, cut off the affected skin.

Traditional healers also recommend using garlic. It is necessary for those people who have nails. The crushed denticle is applied to the problem area and covered with polyethylene on top. It must be fixed with a bandage or a fingertip.

To get rid of skin problems, it is advised to make ointment from 1 egg, 100 g of 70% acetic essence, 200 g of natural crushed butter. All ingredients are added to a half-liter container, covered with a lid and placed in a refrigerator. For a week, the egg shell should dissolve. After this happens, the product is mixed, and an ointment is obtained. It is applied to problem areas.