Athlete's Foot - Transmission

Transmission

From person to person

Athlete's foot is a communicable disease caused by a parasitic fungus in the genus Trichophyton, either Trichophyton rubrum or Trichophyton mentagrophytes. As the fungus that cause athlete's foot requires warmth and moisture to survive and grow, the primary method of incubation and transmission is when people who regularly wear shoes go barefoot in a moist communal environment, such as a changing room or shower, and then put on shoes.

Due to their insulating nature and the much reduced ventilation of the skin, and the tight space in which toes are forced to grow pressed together, shoes are the primary cause of the spread of Athlete's Foot. As such, the fungus is only seen in approximately 0.75% of habitually (always) barefoot people. Always being barefoot allows full ventilation around the feet that causes them to remain dry and exposes them to sunlight, as well as developing much stronger skin and causes the fungus to be worn off and removed before it can infect the skin. Also, people who have never worn shoes have splayed toes due to them not been forced to grow firmly pressed together by a shoe, this even further minimises the chances of infection as it prevents warm moist pockets of skin, such as those seen between the third, fourth and fifth toes in shoe-wearing people.

Athlete's Foot can also be transmitted by sharing footwear with an infected person, such as at a bowling ally or any other place that lends footwear. A less common method of infection is through sharing towels. The various parasitic fungi that cause athlete's foot can also cause skin infections on other areas of the body, most often under toenails (onychomycosis) or on the groin (tinea cruris).