Athlete’s foot is a fungal infection that causes an itchy and scaly rash between the toes. If left untreated, the infection can spread to other parts of the foot, such as the heels, soles, and sides of the feet. The fungi that cause athlete’s foot, known as dermophytes, tend to grow on feet that are damp for extended periods.
Athlete’s foot is incredibly contagious and can spread in various situations and conditions.
This article discusses how the fungus that causes athlete’s foot is transmitted and how long the infection is contagious.
How Does Athlete’s Foot Spread?
Athlete’s foot is so contagious that roughly 20% to 25% of the world’s population has had it at some point in their lives. There are three main methods by which the infection spreads:
When the scales from the rash that develops shed and someone comes into contact with them
When someone comes into contact with the fungus that causes the infection in damp settings such as swimming pools or communal showers
Sharing sheets, towels, shoes, or clothing with someone who has an active athlete’s foot infection
Can Athlete’s Foot Spread to Other Parts of the Body?
If a person with athlete's foot scratches their rash and then touches other parts of the body without washing their hands, the fungi can be transferred and grow in a new area.
Once athlete’s foot is treated, the infection should clear up within two to four weeks. However, athlete's foot can be challenging to get rid of because the fungi tend to live for a long time on the skin.
As long as the fungus is still on the skin of the feet, even during treatment, you can still pass it on to others.
Prevent Athlete’s Foot From Spreading
When you have athlete’s foot or are in the process of treating it, you should avoid spreading the fungus as best you can. Avoid sharing things like towels, shoes, socks, or clothing with other people.
Sleeping with socks on while in bed with your partner and wearing shoes whenever possible in public spaces can also reduce your chance of transmitting it when you’re contagious.
Avoid the use of public showers or pools until your infection has cleared. Wash your hands immediately after touching or scratching the affected area so you don’t spread the fungus elsewhere.
Risk Factors Associated with Athlete's Foot
There are several risk factors associated with athlete’s foot, such as:
Living in a warm and humid climate
Playing contact sports
Regularly using communal showers or lockers rooms
Sharing clothes, shoes, socks, or towels with others
Working in specific professions, such as the military or mining industries
Living in long-term care facilities or other communal-type institutions
Treatment
The first-line treatment for athlete’s foot is an antifungal medication. The type and strength of the medication will vary depending on how severe the infection is.
For example, a mild infection typically responds to an over-the-counter topical antifungal. A more severe case may require a prescription or oral antifungal medication.
Oral antifungal medication is also used when topically applying medication doesn’t work or isn’t appropriate for the individual.
Recurring Athlete’s Foot
In some cases, athlete’s foot can return if you don’t finish out your course of treatment or the fungus remains on your skin. It can also recur if you don’t practice good after-care techniques such as keeping your feet dry and cool. If it continues to recur, you can make an appointment with your healthcare provider to find a stronger treatment option.
Athlete’s foot is a highly contagious fungal infection that affects the feet. When a person gets athlete’s foot, It is typically caused by damp and humid conditions or contracting the fungus from someone else. The infection can spread easily from person to person.
If you have athlete’s foot, it is up to you to prevent the spread. To do so, you can wear socks to bed, avoid communal showers, and wash your hands after you touch the infection. Keeping your hands clean will also prevent spreading the infection to other parts of your body.
A Word From Verywell
While athlete’s foot is incredibly common, it is still annoying to deal with. The rash and itching associated with the infection will continue to worsen if you don’t get prompt treatment. That’s why it’s important to always seek medical advice if you suspect you may have athlete’s foot.
Seeing your healthcare provider as soon as you notice symptoms will help you manage athlete's foot and reduce the risk of transmitting it to others.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to throw away my shoes if I have athlete's foot?
While you don’t necessarily need to throw your shoes away if you have the infection, it is advised if you wore them without socks. Because the bacteria thrives in warm and damp environments, any shoes that you may have sweated in with bare feet could harbor the fungus that causes the infection.
What kills athlete's foot instantly?
While nothing will cure you of the infection instantly, certain remedies can be used to speed up the healing process. Hydrogen peroxide, for example, is one of them. Studies have found that hydrogen peroxide can kill the fungus fairly quickly.
Athlete’s foot can be transmitted in bed. If the skin flakes off and gets on the sheets, it can be spread that way if you share a bed with someone else. That is why it’s important to wear socks while in bed to protect your partner if you have an athlete’s foot infection.
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By Angelica Bottaro Angelica Bottaro is a professional freelance writer with over 5 years of experience. She has been educated in both psychology and journalism, and her dual education has given her the research and writing skills needed to deliver sound and engaging content in the health space.
Athlete's foot is highly contagious. Many people catch it by walking barefoot in public areas such as swimming pools, locker rooms, and showers. These environments are warm and moist making them the perfect breeding ground for fungi.
How Long Is Athlete's Foot Contagious? As long as the fungus is still on the skin of the feet, even during treatment, you can still pass it on to others.
Foot fungi can easily spread to a partner when you sleep in the same bed or wear the same shoes. Sharing a shower with someone who has athlete's foot is also a risk. In a rare case where two partners have open wounds on their feet, an untreated infection of the foot can be transferred from one person to the other.
What Is Athlete's Foot? Tinea pedis, more commonly known as athlete's foot, is a non-serious and common fungal infection of the foot. Athlete's foot is contagious and can be contracted by touching someone who has it or infected surfaces.
Many people develop athlete's foot (tinea pedis) before tinea manuum. Because the fungus is so spreadable, you can transfer the infection from your feet to your hands after scratching your feet.
Athlete's foot is unlikely to get better on its own, but you can buy antifungal medicines for it from a pharmacy. They usually take a few weeks to work. Athlete's foot treatments are available as: creams.
To prevent re-infection if you're in the middle of treatment, you can disinfect your shoes, socks, showers, sheets, floors, bathmats and other high-risk surfaces. Avoid sharing socks and shoes with those that have the infection.
Make sure that any clothing, socks, towels or bedding that have been exposed to the infected person are washed separately in hot water (at least 140 degrees F). If water isn't hot enough it won't be able to kill the fungus.
A simple and easy fix at home is to “sanitize shower bases with a potential disinfectant like bleach. It kills spores of fungi,” Tierno says. Try a diluted bleach solution to kill off any potential threats.
Use an anti-fungal powder on your feet, especially when performing strenuous activities which cause perspiration. Never share towels, wear socks while inside your home, and wash your sheets in hot water to prevent the spread of athlete's foot to your partner.
Fungus is already a difficult infection to get rid of, and what surprises many people is that fungus can live in your shoes for up to 20 months. Thus, continuously treating your shoes throughout treatment is essential.
Wash your feet twice a day and gently towel-dry between the toes.Use an antifungal product. After washing and drying your feet, apply an antifungal product. The antifungal terbinafine (Lamisil AT) has been shown to be very effective.
Athlete's foot can spread if you scratch the itch and then touch other parts of your body, including your groin (jock itch) and the skin under your arms. It can also spread to other parts of your body via contaminated sheets or clothing.
The early signs of athlete's foot are patches or fissures (deep breaks or slits), especially between the toes. As the infection progresses, the skin may turn red, become itchy, and appear moist. Small blisters may spread out across the foot, breaking to expose raw fissures that are painful and may swell.
Like hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol can help kill off the fungus that's on the surface level of the skin. You can apply it directly to the affected area or soak your feet in a footbath of 70 percent rubbing alcohol and 30 percent water for 30 minutes.
The root cause of any case of athlete's foot is a fungus (the same one responsible for jock itch and ringworm). This fungal infection is contagious and spreads via contact with either infected individuals or contaminated surfaces and items, like towels and socks.
Wash sheets, towels, socks, underwear, and bedclothes in hot water (at 60 °C / 140 °F) to kill the fungus. Change towels and bed sheets at least once per week.
If you have athlete's foot, it's a good idea to wear socks to bed, especially if you share your bed with another person. This can help prevent transmitting the fungus to others. Athlete's foot (tinea pedis) is a fungal infection caused by a ringworm.
And if you have a fungal infection like athlete's foot, you'll need to disinfect your shoes to avoid reinfection. That's why everyone should disinfect their sneakers periodically. Disinfecting goes beyond cleaning by using chemicals to eliminate germs.
To prevent or mitigate the spread of the fungal infection, an individual might consider being particularly careful with how they handle their laundry. This is because spores can often spread from clothes to clothes.
It may sound like a dangerous chemical, but hydrogen peroxide is an effective home remedy for treating athlete's foot. The chemical works by killing all surface bacteria and funguses on the skin.
If athlete's foot spreads to other body parts, it often goes by other names such as ringworm or jock itch. You can even get athlete's foot on your head, face, or hands.
One method for keeping athlete's foot from flaring up is to soak socks in water with a splash of Pine Sol after wearing. An anti-fungal disinfectant like Pine Sol helps kill any athlete's foot fungus left in the sock fibers. After soaking for a while, wash the socks as usual.
If the previous owners had walked around barefoot on those carpets, it is possible that they spread a fungus into the carpet. If this applies to you, you might consider deep cleaning the carpet to remove these damaging fungi. Doing this might ultimately protect you and your family from developing athlete's foot.
Dr. Chatman offered the following tips to help eliminate athlete's foot: Clean your feet daily with soap and water and be sure to scrub between your toes.
Blast the insides of your shoes with a disinfectant spray such as Lysol, Dr. Conroy says. Let your shoes dry overnight before wearing them. If you have an active infection, do this every day with whatever shoes you wear.
"You can take wadded up newspaper or paper towels and spray them down with Lysol and stuff them in the shoes and just leave them there overnight. That'll kill the fungus in there. It'll also kill other bacteria.
Combine 1 part bleach with 2 parts water in a spray bottle and spritz the affected area.Let the solution sit for 10 minutes. The mold should start to fade away on its own, but if areas of stubborn mold remain, use a coarse brush (for larger areas) or old toothbrush (for smaller areas) to scrub the mold away.
Left untreated, athlete's foot can affect the toenails — which may thicken, become discolored or crumble — and even spread to your hands or groin. Additionally, athlete's foot can make you more vulnerable to bacterial infections, such as cellulitis.
Athlete's foot is a type of fungal skin infection that is typically mild and goes away within 2 weeks. However, in some cases recovery may take longer if the infection is serious or affects the toenails. For people with diabetes, athlete's foot may take up to 4 weeks to clear up.
The incubation period for the fungi is generally thought to be from 4 to 10 days. It is after this incubation period that the physical signs of athlete's foot start to manifest themselves. It is during the incubation period that further direct or indirect infection is most likely to occur.
Air out your shoes whenever you can, and try not to wear the same pair of shoes every day. Use talcum powder to keep your toes and feet dry, or use an over-the-counter (OTC) antifungal... You can use talcum or antifungal powder on your feet and inside your shoes to absorb moisture and help combat fungal infections.
As vinegar has antifungal properties, soaking the feet daily in a vinegar foot bath could help fight off fungal infections, such as athlete's foot. However, there is currently no reliable evidence to suggest that any home remedies, including vinegar, are useful in the treatment of athlete's foot.
In some cases, you can get jock itch if you have athlete's foot (tinea pedis). You can spread the fungus by touching your groin after touching your infected foot. You can also spread the fungus from your feet to your groin through your clothing.
Rubbing alcohol also has the potential to kill fungus, even the type that causes athlete's foot. It is not recommended to directly apply alcohol to the affected area because it will burn, but you can soak your feet in a water bath with alcohol.
You can even use Epsom salt baths to relieve a number of foot complaints and conditions, including: Athlete's Foot: While Epsom salts don't kill the fungus that causes athlete's foot, it can help draw the moisture out. This makes the environment much less inviting for fungus.
It requires a pan in which both feet will fit, enough water in the pan to cover the feet, 2 cups of white vinegar and 1 cup of Epsom salts. Put the feet into the bath and watch TV, or read a good book while they soak. Repeat this every few days until the fungus clears.
Athlete's foot is a fungal infection of the skin on the feet. It is characterized by an itchy, red rash and dry, peeling skin on the feet. Athlete's foot is highly contagious. Many people catch it by walking barefoot in public areas such as swimming pools, locker rooms, and showers.
Athlete's foot spreads either through contact with fungi or by contact with infected skin. Perpetually damp areas like locker rooms, bathroom floors, showers, and swimming pools are prime breeding grounds for the fungi. They can also live in socks, shoes, and towels, all of which have a tendency to remain moist.
Athlete's foot is contagious and can transfer from person to person. The first step in preventing the spread of athlete's foot is to keep the feet clean and dry.
Fungus is already a difficult infection to get rid of, and what surprises many people is that fungus can live in your shoes for up to 20 months. Thus, continuously treating your shoes throughout treatment is essential. There are many ways to treat shoes including Lysol, anti-fungal mists and UV shoe cleaning devices.
How Do You Disinfect Shoes From Athlete's Foot? The best way to disinfect shoes from athlete's foot is to use a UV shoe sanitizer. However, you can also use hydrogen peroxide and baking soda to get rid of fungus from athlete's foot. Vinegar is also effective at slowing down fungal growth in shoes.
Over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription antifungal creams, ointments, gels, sprays or powders effectively treat athlete's foot. These products contain clotrimazole, miconazole, tolnaftate or terbinafine. Some prescription antifungal medications for athlete's foot are pills.
Use hot water (140°F or 60°C) and your regular detergent for infected laundry. Lower temperatures will not kill the fungus and can transfer spores to other fabrics in the same load.
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