facial ring worm

[francini]

I am wondering if ring worm can be intermittently active with dormant phases?
I have had a "rash" that intermittently appears sometimes three times in one year and sometimes once every two years ever since childhood.  It resembles the pics that are taken and documented as facial ring worm.  Either there is very little written regarding intermittent appearances or it does not happen.
I am usually treated with ointments or creams.  Corticosteroids alleviate the problem however, reoccurance worsens so this tx has been discontinued.
Out of personal monitoring I have noticed that antibiotics help to alleviate the problem with no ongoing worsening manifestations.
Any answers?

[francini]

re - Oct 16, 2008  'keep us posted' from Francini answered by Rowena Santos.

I have gotten so many scrapings for samples taken over the years from different people who thought that they knew what it was it's just incredible.  There was one scraping that came back positive as a cold sore (HSV-1) but that year I actually had a couple of cold sores.
The reccurance has deminished over the years but I guess that there's still a lot to be learned re - the human body.  Just thought that I would post this and see if there was any evidence suggesting my theory to have any validity, I'm not necessarily sure if it was scraped for fungal infections or not, guess I'll have to wait for it to become active and see for myself.

[Dr Santos]

Hi,

Definite diagnosis of a fungal infection is usually obtaining skin scrapings of the lesion and evaluating it under the microscope for fungus. It would be best to have this done for confirmation of the infection. This condition usually responds to anti-fungal medication and has a tendency to recur. Recurrence depends on a lot of factors such as stress, genetic component, or re-exposure to this organism. If this condition responds to antibiotics, however, further evaluation of your doctor is needed to reach a diagnosis. A complete medical and physical examination is important.

Take care and keep us posted.