How to Identify and Help Prevent Fungal Diseases

What Are Fungal Diseases?

Illness from fungi-related germs are called fungal diseases. Some fungal diseases, such as athlete’s foot, ringworm, and candidiasis (yeast infection), are fairly common and easy to treat. Other fungal diseases, such as fungal meningitis and bloodstream infections, are more serious, and can even be life-threatening.

Some fungal diseases have noticeable symptoms, while others affect internal parts of the body, and may be more difficult to identify and diagnose. The different types of fungal diseases can be defined as:

Superficial—tend to affect the hair shaft or a dead layer of skin
Cutaneous—tend to affect outer skin layers, hair, or nails
Subcutaneous—tend to affect inner skin or tissue layers
Systemic and opportunistic—tend to affect internal organs¹

What Causes Fungal Diseases?

There are approximately 1.5 million different species of fungi that exist on Earth, but only about 300 are known to make people sick.² They can live in soil, on plants or trees, on many indoor surfaces, and on human skin. Typically, fungi are part of their natural environment and too small to notice with the human eye. Anyone who comes in contact with disease-causing fungi can become infected. People with weak immune systems tend to be more susceptible to fungal disease.

How Can Safeguard Help Prevent Fungal Diseases?

Fungal diseases often attack without much warning, so practicing good hygiene daily is critical for prevention. Washing your hands is one important way to protect against fungal diseases. In addition, because many common fungal diseases enter through other parts of the body, such as the feet, you should also shower or bathe daily with a soap that’s formulated to defend against fungal-related germs. Safeguard with GermShield+ Body Wash removes germs that cause fungal disease, and keeps them away for up to 12 hours after washing—longer than any other antibacterial soap.

¹ https://www.inkling.com/read/mims-medical-microbiology-goering-dockrell-zuckerman-roitt-chiodini-5th/chapter-4/major-groups-of-disease-causing#ff430e7b906c4d37bfb078e250d5f9d6

² http://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/index.html#one