Lichen is a very serious skin disease, which is most often characterized by the appearance of nodular formations, causing severe and intolerable itching. In addition, inflammation and tissue necrosis may appear. Therefore, it is very important to determine the incubation period of a person’s deprivation in order to minimize the possible consequences of this disease in time.
Causes of lichen
The most common variety is ringworm. The incubation period of lichen in humans may vary depending on many factors. Most often, it ranges from a few weeks to two months.
Usually this disease is transmitted from a sick animal or person to a healthy one. The most common way to transmit the disease is contact-household. They are also often infected by touching sick animals, using objects that the infected person touched, or visiting places of shared use.
When an infected person or animal touches any objects, their skin or hair particles remain on them. They can remain viable for a very long time. The result can be epidemics, for example, in school and preschool institutions. Above all, the danger of becoming infected with lichen occurs in the spring and autumn months.
The most susceptible to infection with this skin disease are patients who have low immunity, who work with the ground without gloves, having cracks and microdamages on the skin. And also if they are in prolonged contact with sick animals or people.
Incubation period
The incubation period of ringworm in humans is from one to two days to one and a half to two months. The rate of development of this fungal infection directly depends on which pathogen appeared in the human body.
It’s one thing if it’s superficial infection. In this case, the incubation period in a person will be no more than a week. The first symptoms should appear on the 5-6th day after contact with the pathogen.
Another type of lichen, for example, infiltrative-suppurative, may not manifest itself even for several months. In this case, it is often not possible to determine when the infection occurred.
Symptoms of the disease
Lichen affects any part of the human skin, but most often the disease develops on the head. In this case, if the patient has a large amount of hair, the first signs of infection can pass unnoticed.
It should be worried if the hair begins to break and fall out without objective reasons. And also there is a peeling and intolerable itch. The focus of inflammation of the infection begins to appear 7-10 days after infection.
As a rule, after the incubation period of a person’s deprivation has passed, several foci of a sufficiently large size are formed. A rash and suppuration forms around them. At the same time, the hair falls out even more, and the ends are covered with a characteristic gray coating.
If lichen is manifested on the human body, then it is even easier to detect. Skin swelling appears on the back, arms, legs or chest, and may be pink or red in color.
If the nail plate is affected by the fungus, then it will become cloudy, rough and rough over time and will even begin to crumble.
In the most sad case, with a chronic disease, the hair falls out badly, noticeable bald spots form, the itching does not stop. The shape of the spots can change, most often they emit a sugary smell.
With an infiltrative suppurative form of infection, fever may develop, weakness, lymph nodes will increase throughout the body. Also, this form is accompanied by migraine. This is one of the most difficult forms. The number of lesions can be several tens.
Transfer depriving from animals
One of the most common ways to become infected with lichen is to catch it from animals. The carrier is often stray cats. Therefore, it is important to remember how lichen is transmitted. The incubation period of the disease is very long, and it is very difficult to start treatment in a timely manner.
Symptoms are extremely unpleasant, and, as a rule, they fail to recover quickly and without consequences. At the site of infection bald spots appear, a prerequisite is severe hair loss. But you can get infected with any, even the slightest contact with the animal. The main thing is not to take this disease for severe dandruff, and in the early stages they are very similar. Carried away by the treatment of dandruff, you can seriously launch lichen.
The incubation period of depriving a person from a cat infected may be several weeks. Therefore, it is best to completely eliminate communication and contacts with stray animals. Or if you decide to take the animal to the house from the street, then before bringing it to the apartment, visit the veterinarian. The specialist will be able to orient you, whether the cat has lichen or other diseases, prescribes the necessary preparations for both the animal and you and family members.
An extremely unpleasant disease is cat lichen. In humans, the incubation period is large, so the disease is usually started, and then they pay for their carelessness for a long time.
Pink lichen
Not only cats and other animals become carriers of lichen. Any person has a serious risk of contracting pink lichen giber. This is a dermatological disease, which is at the same time allergic in nature. The causative agent is most often a specific herpes virus.
This disease usually manifests itself after serious colds. And any - from acute respiratory viral infections and influenza to diseases of the throat and ears. Typically, the development of pink lichen coincides with the active phase of a cold.
Recognizing this type of lichen is easy. Spots and numerous rashes appear on the skin. Especially it should be feared by people with weakened immunity. Moreover, for others, this variety of lichen is usually not contagious. The incubation period of pink lichen in humans is from two days to three weeks.
Shingles
Another variety of lichen is shingles. Its causative agent is also the herpes virus. And the specific one is the zoster. It can be distinguished by the location of skin lesions. They correspond to the location of the human nerve trunks.
The most serious problem is that the incubation period of shingles in humans can reach several decades. Moreover, even if a person is a carrier of the virus, he may not be susceptible to it. Most often, this disease occurs in mature and elderly people. In medicine, there was no case of infection in children under the age of 10 years.
This type of lichen does not spread by airborne droplets. You can catch the virus only with close and direct contact. Particularly cautious should be people who have not had chickenpox in childhood.
Depriving treatment
The main goal of treatment for lichen is to kill the causative agent. This is achieved with local therapy. It includes the regular intake of antifungal drugs, in especially severe cases, a specialist can prescribe special hormones that will help the body fight the virus. Multivitamins, iron and phytin preparations, injections of aloe extract are also used.
At home, it is recommended to treat the affected areas of the skin with a 5% iodine solution, apply antifungal creams and ointments.
Depriving Prevention
Lichen is a disease that can and should be prevented. For effective prevention, it is necessary to conduct a regular examination of all family members for the appearance of the first signs.
A sick person must be immediately isolated, a continuous disinfection of his belongings and accessories should be carried out.
After visiting public toilets and other places of mass use, wash your hands thoroughly, take a shower daily, and do not use other people's personal hygiene items - combs, underwear. Do not contact stray animals.