A communicable disease is an illness transmitted through contact with one person, animal, food, surface, and air to another. The exchange of fluids or contact with a contaminated substance or individual may be enough to allow a communicable disease to spread. Communicable diseases are all-around but to avoid getting infected with one, people should follow prevention guidelines. There are many communicable diseases but a familiar one is dermatophytes, better known as ringworm, infect the skin, hair, or nails of a person. To control it people should practice good hygiene. Environmental factors, which are related to dermatophytes, are mostly human-to-human contact and human-to-animal contact. To reduce the spread of the ringworm, public health departments give tips to everyone on how to prevent and treatments to kill the infection.
Dermatophytes, also known as ringworm or tinea, are fungi that cause infection to skin, hair, and nail. A common dermatophyte infection is athlete's foot and jock itch. The disease usually spread outward with progress and itches. The infection causes redness, cracking, and patches that may blister among the skin. “Ringworm of the scalp typically begins as a small pimple that expands with time, leaving scaly patches of temporary baldness. Infected hairs become brittle and break off easily. Occasionally, raised moist and draining lesions can occur. When finger/toe nails are affected, the nails become thickened, discolored, and brittle, or they may become chalky and disintegrate with time,” (Wisconsin department of health services, 2012).
To control the spread of dermatophytes, it is important for people to practice good hygiene such as proper hand washing. Proper hand washing consist of wetting hands, applying and rubbing soap for 20 seconds, rising hands well with clean water, dry hands using paper towel, and turning off faucet with paper