An avid gym goer thought she had a bad mosquito bite — until it began spreading all over her body, a bad case of the fungal infection ringworm.
Jamie Samnang, 41, said she’d just finished a workout at the gym last September and had returned home when her arm began to itch. “I thought maybe I’d been bitten by a mosquito, but as the days went on it kept getting worse,” the Silver Spring, Md., beauty and makeup specialist said, according to The Daily Mail.
“Bite cream wasn’t working and I started to get these red raised bumps that were filled with pus,” Samnang said. The itching was “intense and severe,” she explains, sharing that “I was itching so severely that I was bleeding.”
But Samnang didn’t realize that by scratching her rash, she was spreading it. “I was itching my arms and then touching my legs,” she explained. A visit to the dermatologist “shocked and disgusted” Samnang, who said she was told “gyms are one of the number one areas for ringworm because it’s hot, sweaty, and moist.”
“It’s the perfect breeding ground for fungal growth.”
Ringworm gets its name because of its appearance, the Mayo Clinic says, pointing out that “no worms are involved.” It’s an itchy, scaly, ring-shaped fungal infection in the outer layer of your skin, and is contracted by either skin-to-skin contact or by sharing items with someone with ringworm.
Items like workout equipment, Samnang says, sharing that she’d placed her bare arms on a machine before wiping it down first.
Recovery was rough, she said, sharing she needed to apply an anti-fungal cream three times a day for three weeks. “I couldn’t go to work. It was really, really bad. It was so severe,” she said, explaining that she had to “bleach, I had to sterilize, I had to get new bed sheets and I couldn’t sleep near my husband because I was going to get him infected.”
Now when she works out “everything is long sleeved,” Samnang, who used to wear short sleeves or a sports bra, says. “I just can’t take that risk because it was so severe.”
“It’s a nightmare,” she said. “Not everybody is always going to remember to wipe down and unfortunately I was one of those.”
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