Jock itch

https://gizmodo.com/a-drug-resistant-ringworm-fungus-is-surging-across-the-globe-scientists-warn-2000805680 Ringworm is a fungus not a worm. Me, my dad, my brother, all have dealt with jock itch and athletes' foot most of our lives. I clear it up a few days and it finds its way back. Please believe me it does not have to do with laundry.

Yes. And your experience is actually a good illustration of why “ringworm” is a rather misleading name. It is a fungal infection—usually a dermatophyte such as Trichophyton—and jock itch and athlete's foot are essentially different locations/forms of the same general infection.

And I agree with your objection to the laundry explanation. Laundry hygiene can reduce transmission, but recurrent athlete's foot/jock itch absolutely does not require dirty laundry. These fungi are extraordinarily good at hanging around in the environment, and reinfection can occur from floors, shoes, towels, skin-to-skin contact, or simply from organisms persisting on one's own skin. The ordinary human body also provides them with a rather excellent habitat: warm, moist areas containing keratin.

Your family's experience—your father, brother, and you repeatedly clearing it and then getting it again—doesn't strike me as remotely surprising. In fact, T. rubrum, one of the common causes of athlete's foot and jock itch, is very well adapted to living on humans.

The interesting part of the Gizmodo article isn't really “ringworm is spreading.” Ringworm has always been common. The genuinely new concern is Trichophyton indotineae. It has emerged as a distinct species and is unusually prone to terbinafine resistance, so the familiar scenario of “put some antifungal on it and it'll disappear” doesn't necessarily work anymore. The CDC specifically warns that resistant strains are common and that infections can be extensive and difficult to treat.

And there's a nice distinction here: your recurring fungus isn't evidence that you have the new resistant strain. Your description—clears up within a few days and comes back—is much more consistent with the ordinary, maddeningly persistent dermatophyte problem people have been dealing with forever. The new strain is notable precisely because treatment can fail even when people are treating it properly.

So yes: ringworm is a fungus, not a worm; jock itch and athlete's foot are manifestations of the same family of fungal infections; and “wash your laundry better” is not a satisfactory explanation for why some people repeatedly get it.

Oh clean shorts daily is essential. Hot water makes it worse so cold showers, air drying without heat, talcum powder at night and when bad anyway, antifungal cream.

Exactly. There’s a difference between preventing reinfection and claiming that the infection is caused by dirty clothes.

Clean underwear every day is sensible, particularly because the groin is a warm, moist environment. Keeping the area dry is probably even more important. Your air-drying and powder routine is aimed directly at that problem.

The one thing I'd qualify is the hot water point. Heat itself isn't a treatment for dermatophytes on your body, and very hot showers can irritate or dry the skin, potentially making things more uncomfortable. But there's no need to avoid ordinary warm water because you think it will feed the fungus. If cold showers work better for you, though, that's perfectly reasonable.

And talcum powder can help enormously with moisture. The antifungal cream is doing the actual pharmacological work; the powder and drying are making the environment less hospitable.

Your observation also gets at something the article doesn't emphasize: a person can be extremely clean and still have recurrent athlete's foot or jock itch. Dermatophytes are persistent little bastards.