Ringworm Treatment and Abscess Problem
I have recently had a horrible abscess on my buttock. Can you please tell me all about these messy things?
An abscess is a collection of pus in a tissue-lined cavity. They occur due to the destruction of normal tissue by a bacterial infecrion. Rarely, fungal infections may cause an abscess.
When a bacteria infects an area, it destroys the normal cells. The wastes produced can normally be removed through the blood circulation in the area, but if the destruction is too great, the waste products accumulate as pus, and an abscess forms. There are two main types of abscess: those that occur in or under the skin, and those that occur in internal body organs.
An abscess in or under the skin appears as a red, painful swelling. It is initially hard to touch, but as the pus formation increases, it becomes soft and obviously fluid filled. In due course, it will ‘point’ and form a head that will eventually burst and allow the pus to escape. Treatment in the early stages will involve antibiotics by mouth or injection, and hot compresses on the area. Once there is obvious fluid present, the abscess should (under local or general anaesthetic) be drained, scraped out, and the drain hole kept open by a small piece of cloth (a wick) to allow any further pus to escape quickly. The wick is changed regularly, and the abscess cavity will slowly reduce in size until it heals.
Particularly nasty abscesses may develop around the anus and require quite major surgery to allow for the adequate drainage of pus.
My daughter has just been started on treatment for a ringworm. How do you catch ringworm?
Ringworm is not a worm, but a fungal infection of the skin. The disease is caught from another animal (human, cat, dog etc.) that already has the disease.
The fungal spore that causes the disease penetrates into the skin, and then starts growing. It first appears as a red spot that gradually enlarges and then develops a pale centre. As the fungus grows, the edge of the spreading infection becomes red and inflamed, while the area that has recovered returns to a normal skin colour. Thus a slowly enlarging ring appears.
The same phenomenon can be seen in the toadstool rings that form in damp grass.