What causes onychomycosis? Can it only be transmitted through others? Or will you get this disease yourself?

1. What is onychomycosis? Nail is a part of human skin epidermis, which is divided into nail bed, deck and nail matrix. The most important function is to protect the ends of fingers. People often say that "eyes are the windows of the soul, and nails are the windows of health". The health of toenails not only reflects the health of the body, but also reflects the mental outlook of a person. "Onychomycosis", the scientific name of onychomycosis, is a disease caused by skin fungi invading nails. Mostly manifested as nail discoloration, thickening, dirt accumulation or deck damage. Clinical manifestations of onychomycosis. The main clinical manifestations are: 2. 1. It often occurs alone and gradually involves other nails; 2.2. The diseased nails are thickened and discolored (grayish white or dirty yellow, in severe cases, grayish brown), the deck loses luster, the surface is uneven, the nails become brittle, and become a large number of accumulated debris, which means that the toenails are easy to break, and in severe cases, the deck is completely separated from the base. 2.3. Often accompanied by tinea of hands and feet. 3. At present, the main types of onychomycosis can be divided into the following types according to the location and depth of tinea invasion: 3. 1. Distal subungual type: at first, irregular small white spots appeared on the distal (or lateral) deck surface of nails, then turned into dark gray spots, and gradually turned yellow-brown until black. Soon the deck deteriorated, cutin debris accumulated under the nails, and the nail bed thickened. Finally, the deck shrinks and occasionally bleeds. This type is usually caused by red, gypsum-like or flocculent skin fungi. 3.2. Proximal hypothyroidism: rare, mostly secondary to paronychia. First, the deck turned white near the nail crease (that is, near the center end of the deck), and then gradually expanded into spots. Finally, part of the deck was missing and expanded to the whole nail. This type is only caused by Trichophyton rubrum and Trichophyton roseum. 3.3. White superficial type: common in toenails. It shows that there are white spots or white patches with a diameter of 1 mm on the deck surface, and the diseased nail is fragile and scraped off. This type is only caused by Trichophyton gypsophila or mycoplasma, Fusarium and Aspergillus. 3.4. Full-nail malnutrition: This situation is not uncommon, and it is often the result of the final development of the above types. It is characterized by the loss of luster, deterioration, thickening or fragmentation of the whole nail, and the abnormal thickening of the nail bed after falling off. 3.5. Chronic cutaneous candidiasis onychomycosis (or true candidiasis onychomycosis): The whole nail is deteriorated, swollen and brittle, with warts and unevenness on the surface. 3.6. Chronic paronychia type: manifested as lateral nail fold and proximal nail fold, and the lower layer of epidermal protective film deteriorated or browned. The most important feature is paronychia, periungual plica swelling but no hyperkeratosis, a small amount of exudation but no pus. This type is also caused by candida. 4. Prevention of onychomycosis is a chronic infectious disease that is difficult to treat. In order to prevent onychomycosis, we should take active and effective preventive measures to prevent toenails from being infected by pathogenic fungi. The specific points are as follows: 4. 1. First of all, we should pay attention to the prevention and treatment of tinea pedis and correct the incorrect view that tinea pedis will not cause other diseases. 4.2. Don't borrow daily necessities from each other, such as shoes and socks, slippers, footbath, foot towel, etc. Don't share with others; This is the key to prevent indirect infection. 4.3. Develop good hygiene habits, wash your feet and change your socks frequently at ordinary times, expose your shoes and socks frequently and keep them dry. 4.4. For people with sweaty hands and feet, some treatment methods (such as external use of 5% formalin solution or Sisera Lotion, etc.). ) can be used to inhibit local perspiration. Summer is the frequent period of tinea manus and pedis, so we should pay special attention to it. 4.5. Do a good job in environmental sanitation, and do not create an external environment for the growth and reproduction of pathogenic fungi, such as avoiding crowded and humid houses, paying attention to indoor ventilation, drying bedding frequently, and washing sheets, shirts and pants frequently. The daily necessities of patients with onychomycosis and tinea of hands and feet at home should be disinfected regularly with boiling water, and articles that cannot be burned should be disinfected by sunlight for 2-3 hours. 4.6. Enhancing the body's ability to resist pathogenic fungi, such as strengthening physical exercise and paying attention to nutrition, is conducive to improving disease resistance. 4.7. Patients with tinea manuum, tinea pedis and tinea capitis should be treated actively and seriously as soon as possible to avoid the development of the disease and infect others. 5. Who grows gray (toenails) more easily? As far as age is concerned, toenails can be attacked by pathogenic fungi at any age. However, the incidence rate of people of different ages is different. According to statistics, among many patients, 23.9% are 17-30 years old, 75.5% are over 30 years old, and the incidence rate of adolescents is very low, accounting for only 0.6%. With the rapid growth of the elderly population in China, the proportion of elderly onychomycosis patients is getting higher and higher. As far as occupation is concerned, living and working in a humid and warm environment is generally prone to onychomycosis and beriberi. Therefore, service personnel in catering industry, washing industry and hairdressing industry are prone to get gray toenails. But why are some people particularly prone to onychomycosis and beriberi in the same environment? These two diseases are difficult to cure, but easy to expand or spread? This may be related to personal physique. Individuals with immune deficiency are particularly prone to onychomycosis and dermatophytosis. For example, patients with cancer, diabetes, AIDS, and many frail elderly people, due to decreased immunity, the incidence of onychomycosis is much higher than that of ordinary people. In addition, people with athlete's foot such as tinea manus and tinea pedis are more likely to be infected with onychomycosis. Most pathogenic fungi of tinea manuum, tinea pedis and tinea pedis can invade nails and cause onychomycosis. Generally speaking, the formation of onychomycosis is a slow evolution process, and the type, duration and severity of tinea pedis are closely related to the infection of onychomycosis. Clinically, tinea manuum and tinea pedis are the most stubborn, and onychomycosis is more common. Hazard 1: Obstructing normal physiological activities Onychomycosis can cause pain and discomfort and affect the activities of the hands. Many delicate tasks that human beings are engaged in, such as threading needles and picking up small objects, depend on the assistance of nails. Fingernails and toenails grow at the ends of fingers and toes to protect them. Imagine that if there were no claw nails, fingers and toes would be easily injured by collision. In addition, like scratching, it is very convenient to have nails, but it is very troublesome to find a substitute without nails for the time being. Girls love beauty and wear sandals in summer, but after suffering from gray toenails, they have to wear cloth shoes or opaque socks to cover them. In addition, due to the infectivity of onychomycosis, some public places such as public bathrooms and public swimming pools also refuse to open to friends with onychomycosis. Hazard 2: Patients with onychomycosis with abnormal psychology, especially in the case of ineffective long-term treatment, often feel sick and unable to get rid of it, and often feel embarrassed and depressed. Especially when work, marriage, life, social interaction and other aspects are affected by onychomycosis and fail, the psychological impact on patients is greater than that of normal people, and they often have inferiority complex. Among the patients we contacted, a young man told us about his situation. His two thumbs suffer from onychomycosis. Because of his work, he often talks about business with many strangers. When meeting, he always exchanges business cards first. People usually give him business cards generously, but he is afraid that others will feel bad when they see the onychomycosis on his thumb, so he always hands them to each other with his index finger and middle finger between them. Over time, I am always depressed, and sometimes when it comes to handing over business cards, my mood will be out of balance, which will seriously affect my work. Hazard 3: Some jobs after choosing a job and suffering from onychomycosis are restricted, such as doctors, nurses, silk weavers and public relations. Because onychomycosis affects the appearance, it often gives people a bad feeling. Choosing some jobs with high image requirements, such as reception, flight attendants, modeling, etc., is often not accepted. There is a young lady who is excellent in foreign languages, articulate, lively and slim, and loves tour guide work. She thought she was foolproof in applying for a job in a travel company, but she was unsuccessful because of her poor health. She argued that she was not ill, and the recruiter pointed out that she had onychomycosis, so she had to admit it, and then went to the hospital to seriously treat onychomycosis. There are many examples of small onychomycosis that make the ideal job miss, which must not be ignored. Hazard 4: onychomycosis is the source of infection. Onychomycosis can be complicated with bacterial infection, causing patients to have diseases with serious systemic symptoms such as erysipelas or cellulitis; If onychomycosis is not cured, even if tinea of hands and feet is cured, it is easy to be infected by onychomycosis again, and all previous efforts are in vain. Onychomycosis can cause new tinea diseases by inoculating fungi to other parts of the body with scratching; Onychomycosis can also be infected with onychomycosis in families or other people, especially lesbians suffering from onychomycosis can be infected with gynecological diseases such as genital mycosis and candida albicans vaginitis. Onychomycosis is an invisible source of infection, which often spreads pathogenic fungi to the outside world. Hazard 5: onychomycosis may be the cause of malignant tumor. According to the latest medical research data, onychomycosis may be the cause of malignant tumor, which is by no means alarmist. A carcinogenic "Trichophyton chrysogenum" was proposed in Trichophyton McGonagall. Others injected the extract of Microsporum strains into mice, and malignant sarcoma, breast adenoma, leukemia or lung tumor occurred respectively, and the sum of their incidence rates was as high as 52.8%. The extract of Trichophyton can also cause the above four kinds of malignant tumors in mice, with a total incidence of 36.6%. After mice were injected with the extract of Epidermophyton floccosum, the total incidence of four kinds of malignant tumors was 22.6%. Trichophyton, Microsporum and Epidermophyton floccosum are the most common pathogens causing various tinea diseases in China. Although all the above are the results of animal experiments, in fact, not all people suffering from various tinea diseases will have the above four kinds of malignant tumors, but under the current situation that the causes of malignant tumors are still unclear, these research results urge us to pay attention to the treatment of various tinea diseases. 6. Inducing factors of onychomycosis What are the patients with dermatophytosis such as tinea manus and pedis? It is easy to induce onychomycosis, but it is not always infected with onychomycosis, which is generally caused by the following inducing factors: 6. 1. Trauma: Finger (toe) nail trauma is an important cause of onychomycosis. According to our clinical experience, nearly half of the patients have a history of nail injury, and most of them are accompanied by tinea of hands and feet. 6.2, paronychia: nail groove infection or finger (toe) nails often soaked in moisture, can make the nail fold soft, easy to separate from the side of the nail, invaded by fungi and become onychomycosis. 6.3. Anti-stripping: Some patients like to peel their nails by hand, which will lead to bacterial infection or fungal infection and onychomycosis. 6.4. Pregnancy: During pregnancy, patients with tinea manus, tinea pedis, due to endocrine disorders, decreased body resistance and malnutrition of nails, led to fungal infection, mass reproduction, nail infection and onychomycosis. 6.5. Drug therapy: long-term use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, etc. It will easily lead to the imbalance of normal flora in human body, which is conducive to fungal reproduction and leads to onychomycosis. 7. What disease should onychomycosis be differentiated from? Nail diseases easily confused with onychomycosis are: 7. 1. Systemic diseases, nutritional diseases, hereditary diseases or drugs can cause various nail changes. Such as nail color changes (whitening, darkening, pigmentation, light blue, yellow, etc.). ) and the change of nail appearance (horizontal groove, dysplasia, too thick or too thin deck, too big or too small, fragile or falling off the nail bed, etc. ), these changes are sometimes mistaken for onychomycosis, but these nail diseases have one thing in common, that is, all nails (toes) have lesions. Onychomycosis is caused by external factors, and fungal infections on the deck spread one after another. Sometimes, many nails have tinea, but they have appeared one after another, and some nails may still be completely normal, which is invisible in endogenous onychomycosis; 7.2. Nail lesions caused by skin diseases. Such as psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and lichen planus. , it will also cause deck thickening, deformation, pits or longitudinal uplift. These diseases generally have corresponding skin diseases to assist diagnosis. 7.3. Bacterial infection. Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection can be chloromycete and mold-like infection, such as Penicillium. Bacterial paronychia and its nail lesions can be similar to those caused by candida, but the former has obvious acute inflammation such as redness, swelling, heat and pain, and pus can appear, while the latter does not. Fungi are not found in the three types of onychomycosis, but they can be found in onychomycosis. Non-fungal onychomycosis treatment is generally ineffective, and some will be more serious. 10. The relationship between onychomycosis and cancer, diabetes and AIDS. The latest medical research has found that the manifestations of onychomycosis and pathogenic bacteria can be used as reference indicators for early detection of diabetes and AIDS. Patients with low immune function, diabetes and advanced cancer are the high incidence of onychomycosis. Richard Schell, vice president of the American Academy of Dermatology, said that diabetic patients are three times more likely to be infected with mycoses such as onychomycosis than normal people. The clinical manifestations of onychomycosis in patients with diabetes and AIDS are also different from those in the general population. Therefore, it can be used as an important reference for early detection of AIDS in diabetes. Schell said that most people are infected with onychomycosis, fungi attack from the outer edge of nails to the center, and the pathogenic bacteria are mostly dermatophytes. Once the patient's course of disease goes in the opposite direction, the infection starts from the proximal end of the nail, and then finally invades the repair deck with the growth of the nail, and HIV virus is further detected, and 90% of the patients are diagnosed with AIDS; If candida or yeast is found on onychomycosis, accompanied by paronychia, it is mostly diabetes.

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