TROPICAL HEALTH Big wet brings out foot fungus
CAIRNS’ record-breaking wet season has brought another unfortunate side-effect – thriving conditions for foot fungus.
Local pharmacists are reporting that antifungal and tinea creams have been flying off their shelves, as Far North Queenslanders try to tame athlete’s foot, jock itch, and even fungal nail infections.
Podiatrist Callum Blunden, from My Foot Dr Cairns, said his clinic was treating about two people a day for fungal infections, due to humid weather resulting from recent rainfall.
“Definitely with the more humid months, we’ve been seeing more patients with fungal nail infections of the skin and athlete’s foot,” he said.
He said people needed to keep checking their feet for any signs of fungal infections.
“The earlier a slight athlete’s foot infection or fungal nail infection is diagnosed, the quicker it will go,” he said.
“You should also constantly change your shoes and socks, and aerate your feet. When a damp, humid or smelly foot is kept in the dark inside shoes or socks or even covered by nail polishes, it is given the most productive environment for bacteria to grow.”
He said laser therapy was the most effective treatment for fungal nail infection, generating heat at the site of the infection beneath the nail plate to destroy fungi.
Trent Twomey, Queensland branch president of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, said the wet season always provided perfect conditions for fungal growth.
“Whenever the wet season hits in the tropical North, we have a big breakout of fungal infections,” he said.
He said bodily checks were the best course of prevention.
“Be on the lookout for a rash that is just as angry when you wake up in the morning, as it is when you go to bed,” he said. “If it’s just as angry in the morning, then you’ve probably got a fungal infection, and you need to go to see your pharmacist.” Wolbachia bacteria. Since it began in Cairns in 2011, the program has successfully reduced local transmission of dengue fever across the Far North.
Program manager Geoff Wilson said health officials would release mozzies at Injinoo, Umagico, New Mapoon, Seisia and Bamaga.
He said there were longerterm plans to further roll out the program to Papua New Guinea, where dengue fever is now regarded as being endemic.
“We want to take the program places that have been heavily impacted by dengue fever,” Mr Wilson said.
According to the World Health Organisation, there are 500,000 people across the globe with severe dengue requiring hospitalisation each year, with an estimated 2.5 per cent of sufferers dying from the tropical disease.