What is ringworm? Will children recover on their own after contracting ringworm?

Recently, many parents have found that their children's hair on the top of their heads has obvious clefts. They are afraid that it is due to a lack of certain nutrients, so they rush to take their children to see a doctor, but they are told that it is ringworm and the child will heal itself when he reaches puberty. Let's find out what ringworm is!

Tinea capitis is also known as Microsporum capitis, which is the most common. The main pathogens are Microsporum canis and Microsporum gypseum, and occasionally Microsporum ferrugineum. The initial lesions are clustered follicular papules, or annular red patches, which then become mainly scales. The remaining hair shafts are grayish white, dry, slightly sparse, and dull. The disease occurs when the hair breaks about 0.3-0.8 cm away from the scalp, and the remaining hair shafts are surrounded by grayish white sheath-like scales, namely "fungal sheaths", which are formed by fungal spores parasitizing on the hair shafts. There is generally no inflammatory reaction, and it may also be slightly red. The hair follicles may bulge like chicken skin, occasionally accompanied by pustules, exudate, scabs, enlarged lymph nodes nearby, and conscious itching. The lesions generally develop and no longer expand or increase after half a year, and are in a relatively static state. They tend to heal themselves in puberty. If there is no secondary infection, no scars are left, and the healed hair can grow completely. It manifests as grayish-white scaly patches, fungal sheaths, and broken hair on the head. Children can recover without treatment when they reach puberty.

Clinical manifestations:

(1) Typical scalp lesions have three major clinical features:

Grayish white scaly patches, sheaths, broken hair. In the early stage, it appears as round grayish white scaly spots, and later many satellite-like small scaly spots appear around them. After expanding, they merge into large pieces with clear boundaries. They often occur on the top and occipital regions. The lesions develop rapidly at first, and enter a dormant period after 3 months. By puberty, due to the vigorous secretion of sebaceous glands, the unsaturated fatty acids produced after the decomposition of sebum have an inhibitory effect on Trichophyton, so they can heal themselves without treatment by puberty.

(2) Hair damage

The hair loses its luster and often breaks 2 to 4 inches away from the scalp. It is surrounded by a white sheath that is not easy to remove, so the disease is characterized by high infectiousness. The hair is easy to pull out, with slight itching. No scars are left after healing, and hair regenerates normally.