Tinea barbae is a fungal infection of the hair. Tinea barbae is due to a dermatophytic infection around the

beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. Throughout the course of history, societal at ...

ed area of men. Generally, the infection occurs as a follicular

inflammation Inflammation (from la, inflammatio) is part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants, and is a protective response involving immune cells, blood vessels, and molec ...

, or as a

cutaneous Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different d ...

granuloma A granuloma is an aggregation of macrophages that forms in response to chronic inflammation. This occurs when the immune system attempts to isolate foreign substances that it is otherwise unable to eliminate. Such substances include infectious o ...

tous lesion, i.e. a chronic inflammatory reaction. It is one of the causes of

folliculitis Folliculitis is the infection and inflammation of one or more hair follicles. The condition may occur anywhere on hair-covered skin. The rash may appear as pimples that come to white tips on the face, chest, back, arms, legs, buttocks, or head. A ...

. It is most common among agricultural workers, as the transmission is more common from animal-to-human than human-to-human. The most common causes are ''

Trichophyton mentagrophytes ''Trichophyton mentagrophytes'' is a species in the fungal genus '' Trichophyton''. It is one of three common fungi which cause ringworm in companion animals. It is also the second-most commonly isolated fungus causing tinea infections in huma ...

'' and '' T. verrucosum''.

Signs and symptoms

Main symptoms that occur when affected with tinea barbae is pimple or blister amongst affected area, swelling and redness around infected area, red and lumpy skin on infected area. Crusting around hairs in infected area will occur, hairs on infected area will also be effortless to pull out. Tinea barbae can be itchy or painful to touch but these symptoms do not always occur.

Transmission

The transmission of tinea barbae to humans occurs through contact of an infected animal to the skin of a human. Infection can occasionally be transmitted through contact of infected animal hair on human skin. Tinea barbae is very rarely transmitted through human to human contact but is not completely impossible.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis of tinea barbae will firstly include questions being asked from doctors about interactions with farm animals and lifestyle experiences. Doctor will then gain knowledge on possible disease by microscopy, this is viewing the skin under a microscope to get an enlarge view of infected area. Skin scraping and removal of hairs on infected area will occur for medical examination. To acquire causation of tinea barbae putting infected area under ultraviolet light can achieve this, as infection caused by animal and human contact will not show up as fluorescent under the ultraviolet light, compared to other causes of this disease.

Treatment

Treatment can vary with severity of the infection. Moderate cases of tinea barbae can be treated with

topical A topical medication is a medication that is applied to a particular place on or in the body. Most often topical medication means application to body surfaces such as the skin or mucous membranes to treat ailments via a large range of classes ...

antifungal An antifungal medication, also known as an antimycotic medication, is a pharmaceutical fungicide or fungistatic used to treat and prevent mycosis such as athlete's foot, ringworm, candidiasis (thrush), serious systemic infections such as ...

medications. Topical antifungal medications will come in the form of cream, which can normally be obtained over the counter. More serious cases of tinea barbae warrant an oral antifungal medication.

References

External links

{{Mycoses Animal fungal diseases Mycosis-related cutaneous conditions