Hygiene – or the lack of it – plays a key role in the spread of fungal infections. With a little care, you can avoid fungal infections, reduce the risk of recurrent fungal infections, and even stop the spread of an infection if you do get one.
Good Hygiene Can Lower The Risk of Fungal Infections
Many instances of fungal infections can be traced back to poor hygiene or carelessness with things like drying off properly after a bath. Why? That’s because fungus thrives in wet and damp spaces. For instance, the kind of fungus responsible for one of the most common fungal skin infections – ringworm, flourishes where your skin is warm and moist or sweaty. Sweating is a normal process that is unavoidable, but not washing up regularly or not dealing with excessive sweating and poor hygiene can make this problematic.
Hygiene Tips To Prevent Fungal Infections
The good news is that fungal infections can be easily avoided if you take a little extra care and pay attention to hygiene.
- Never go barefoot in places like the gym, swimming pool or other changing rooms, locker rooms, or common showers.
- Rotate the use of footwear to allow each pair to dry well before it is reused.
- Wear open sandals if the weather is hot and sweaty. Avoid socks of synthetic fabric like nylon.
- Wear loose-fitting clothing, and undergarments should be made from natural fibers like cotton.
- Do not share clothing, sports equipment, socks/shoes, and towels with anyone who has a fungal infection.
- Avoid physical contact with anyone who has a fungal infection.
- Keep your skin dry and wash well with soap once a day, more if you sweat a lot.
Hygiene Tips If You Have a Fungal infection
If you do have a fungal infection, hygiene becomes doubly important to help you get rid of the infections quickly and to prevent it from spreading to other areas of the body.
- Always keep your nails clipped short. Ensure they are always clean, as grime and sweat as well as germs can accumulate and spread the infection to other parts of the body.
- Never scratch or itch the affected area, this can interfere with healing and spread the infection.
- Ensure your feet stay cool and dry by using a dusting powder and changing socks and footwear often.
- Keep the skin that is affected clean and dry. Dry well with a separate soft clean towel used just for that part of the body.
- Use a good antifungal treatment like an antifungal cream or antifungal powder to treat the problem.
- Wash your hands well before you apply the cream and after you are done applying it as well.
- Do not stop using the antifungal medication even if the rash or other symptoms go away; you must complete the entire course of treatment to prevent it from flaring up again.
How To Treat Fungal Infections
If you get a fungal skin infection, you will usually need to use a good antifungal cream or antifungal dusting powder to treat the problem. Clocip cream is an effective remedy against problems like ringworm, athlete’s foot, fungal nappy rash, and fungal sweat rash. Simply apply it to the affected area and you should see symptoms of the fungal infection – like a rash or itching – reduce in a few days. This antifungal cream kills the fungus, giving you respite from the discomfort. For problems like Athlete’s Foot you may find an antifungal dusting powder like Clocip Dusting Powder useful to absorb excessive sweat and moisture, reduce friction and sweating, and lower the risk of recurrent infections.
Clocip cream and Clocip dusting powder are available nationwide at pharmacies online and offline. Keep them handy at home if you are prone to fungal infections or have one at the moment.