Athlete’s foot is a widespread disease – an estimated one in five Germans shares stockings and shoes with the athlete’s foot Trichophyton rubrum. Once this extremely resistant fungus has taken up residence in the skin and nails, it is difficult to get rid of.
What is athlete’s foot?
Swimming pools, locker rooms, hotel carpets – public places visited by many people are strongholds for fungal cultures. These particularly like to cavort in damp, warm places and are already spread by tiny skin flakes. They don’t like it too hot, but even then they know how to help themselves: In the form of spores, they wait for better living conditions on sauna benches, for example.
We are talking about dermatophytes – fungi that attack the skin and its appendages, i.e. hair and nails, and can trigger diseases there. For the fungal infection between the toes, on the soles of the feet and nails are mainly responsible representatives of the species Trichophyton.
Causes of athlete’s foot
You can hardly avoid the pathogens – almost everywhere you can find the fungi themselves or their permanent forms, the spores. It is especially common to become infected when walking barefoot in places where fungi also feel at home because of the climate and many people walk without shoes, for example:
- In the swimming pool
- In the sauna
- In the (hotel) shower
- In the locker room from the gym
Particularly piquant: collecting basins for the microorganisms are also foot disinfection systems as they are found everywhere in swimming pools and saunas.
What role do shoes play?
Even when shoes are exchanged, unwelcome roommates can change location at the same time. For example, athlete’s foot used to be far more common in the armed forces than it is today – newly inducted recruits were issued boots that had already been worn by others. Since new boots have been assigned, the rate of contagion has declined.
While not all contact leads to disease, constantly exposed skin (for example, from heavy sweating) can create opportunities for fungi to multiply. Especially when feet are stuck in poorly ventilated shoes for long periods of time, moisture causes the skin between the toes to swell, providing an entry point for athlete’s foot.
Occupational and personal groups at risk
From the above-mentioned circumstance also stems the English name “Athlete’s Foot” – after all, especially athletes often wear sweaty gym or ski boots for longer periods. But construction workers, canal workers or miners are also particularly at risk.
Particularly critical are small wounds, a weakened immune system or circulatory disorders. Diabetics, for example, suffer from athlete’s foot more frequently than the average population.
