HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 55, 18 July 1947, Page 3

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

RINGWORM IN THE GROIN I (By the Department of Heath) I There is a type of ringworm that I has spread generally to most counI tries. It used to be regarded as a topical trouble. A washerman or I dhobie was supposed to infect clothes, hence the name “dhobie itch.” [This particular ringworm fungus prefers males. It makes a flattish I broken patch, ringlike in shape, redI dish at the margin, on the skin of I the groin. It may be on one inner I side of the upper part of the thigh. I Usually there’s a patch on both j sides running into the groin and I probably meeting behind. There's a I sharp edge and a little scaliness at the red circular spreading margin. Very often a person who has this ' ringworm, also has another one between the toes, especially between the little and fourth toe. The groin ringworm can be very itchy. It may flare up and be very active in a spell of excessively hot weather, or after some heavy exercise.

Fortunately the diagnosis is not difficult. Luckily, too, the treatment is simple enough. A number of new remedies have been tried out during the war, for ringworm conditions were very common in the armed forces. None of these is in general civilian use yet. , There are, however, some remedies that have stood the test of time. One is a paint, Castellani’s paint, but as this stains, you have to be careful in its use. Another remedy is simple weak tincture of iodine, painted on twice daily. Don’t use. the strong tincture or iodine paint. However, some folk are allergic to iodine, and get a skin rash on using it.

Probably the safest treatment for I home use is Whitfield’s ointment. Most patches will clear up quickly after the daily use of this ointment. As the fungus spores may be in the I deeper skin layers or in hair follicI les ; and gradually work to the surI face, you may get a reinfection some weeks later. So keep treatment going for some time after an apparent cure. Underclothes should be boiled to kill any fungus spores. I ACCIDENTAL BURNS (By the Department of Health) Death and injury from burns and scalds is a type of home accident that is not decreasing. It continues —clothes catching fire from flames of open fire, or stove front, or from contact with an electric heater, the pulling of pots and pans and kettles from stoves or benches over on to little bodies, with resultant large areas scalded.

The country cannot afford this wastage of little lives. Our papers don’t report every case of burns in the home. They hear of the major tragedies only. Hundreds of cases slip through our hospital wards unheard of. A prominent member of the nursing profession, after a tour round a group of our public hospitals, reported that there were too many toddlers and children in our wards recovering from burns and scalds received in the home—sopie of them severe burns. Some time later a plastic surgeon of great skill urged that parents and others should do all they could to avoid letting children get burnt or scalded at home. He was spending too much time altogether patching up this type of damage, and he frequently had return cases of burns in the same little patient, or of other children from the same home. If you have little ones in the home give some thought to this matter of preventing burns and scalds. Don’t let children play with stoves or fires. Screen and guard all fires, open or electric. Be .careful with fires in the backyard—watch children at the time and don’t leave hot ashes and embers for bare feet to stumble into. Pans or kettles on the top of the stove should have their handles turned in so that a child cannot grasp them. Electric flexes should be out of reach. Dry cleaning should be done outside in the open air and preferably with a noninflammable liquid.