Hand fungus in children

Children are generally more at risk of contracting a fungal infection. Therefore a fungal disease – also a hand fungus – occurs more often in children. This is mainly because the immune system is not yet fully developed and the fungus therefore has a better chance of penetrating the skin.

The transmission of the hand fungus occurs as in adults via infected people, animals or objects. In general, however, hand fungus in children can be treated well. Therefore, a dermatologist should be consulted in any case, who first of all makes the diagnosis and secondly initiates an adequate treatment.

Also in children, the treatment of hand fungus is carried out with locally applied antimycotic creams and ointments containing the same active ingredients as in adults. During the treatment, besides the application of creams, care should also be taken that gloves used by the child are disinfected and, for example, visits to the swimming pool should be avoided. So-called antimycotics are used to treat a fungal disease (mycosis).

These are either applied locally – i.e. directly to the affected areas of the hand – in the form of an ointment or cream or swallowed orally (orally). The local treatment is the standard and is carried out with so-called broad-spectrum antifungals. Here, broad spectrum means that the active ingredients contained in the drug attack many different types of fungi.

Among the active ingredients used for a hand fungus are terbinafine, azoles (clotrimazole, miconazole, bifonazole) and ciclopiroxolamine. If the hand fungus cannot be cured by local treatment, the above mentioned oral medications are prescribed. These include active ingredients like griseofulvin, itraconazole and terbinafine.

Antimycotics come in a variety of forms, depending on the location of the fungal infestation. Suppositories are used for vaginal mycosis, tinctures for infestation of the mucous membranes, nail varnish for nail fungus. Canesten® is an antifungal agent in the form of a cream containing the active ingredient clotrimazole.

This active ingredient can be applied to the hand fungus when it is infested by various fungi such as dermatophytes, yeasts and moulds. Canesten® is therefore one of the broad spectrum antifungal agents. The active ingredient clotrimazole inhibits the formation of an important building block of the fungal wall and thus stops the fungal proliferation.

Canesten® cream is usually applied to the hand fungus 1-3 times a day and rubbed in. The application is usually for 4 weeks. In rare cases, burning, reddening or stinging of the skin may occur during application as a side effect reaction to Canesten®.

Ointments and creams are the treatment of choice for athlete’s foot and hand fungus. In order to treat hand fungus, local application by means of ointments is usually started, whereby these must be applied once or several times a day, depending on the severity of the existing infection. The advantage of an ointment treatment is the rapid reduction of itching.

As a result, those affected have less need to scratch and the risk of the infection spreading further decreases. If a local therapy does not work, a “systemic” (body-spanning) therapy with tablets is used. The active ingredient used here, fluconazole, has a dose-dependent effect either fungistatic, i.e. it inhibits the growth of fungi, or fungicidal (fungicidal). The main disadvantage of general therapy with Fluconazole is its liver-damaging effect.It can therefore only be used in patients with healthy liver.