Yes, toenail fungus is contagious. You have to catch it from somewhere– while it might look like it just appeared by itself from no place, if you have actually got toenail fungus then you’ve entered into contact with someone else who is infected.
Is Toenail Fungus Contagious?
While it might not be categorized as “extremely contagious”, it is still extremely easy to spread out a fungal toenail infection from someone to another, typically through sharing products that have entered into contact with the infection — think shoes, socks, nail polish, nail tools, etc. In terms of spreading the fungal infection from a single person to another, among the most common locations for an infection to spread is at a nail salon. If an individual who has a fungal infection has a nail treatment and the tools are not properly sterilised in between treatments, or a bottle of nail polish is put on an infected individual, it can easily be spread to other customers at the beauty salon. If you regularly opt for pedicures, make sure to inquire about their sterilisation methods and practices — and take your very own nail polish.
However, this is not the most common method of catching a toenail fungus– mainly because toenail fungus is much more typical in men than it remains in women.
Can toenail fungus be cured?
For the majority of people, the fungus that has infected their toenails started off as a case of professional athlete’s foot. This is usually spread out from person to individual by walking barefoot in the showers at your gym or at your regional swimming pool, which is why you must always use flip flops or sandals when in any damp/wet area.
Left without treatment, this case of professional athlete’s foot will remain to grow and spread throughout the sole of your feet and onto your toes — and this is when it will usually “jump” and infect your toenails.
Typically, this is the outcome of some type of injury to the nail that will make it prone to the infection — such as when someone steps or drops something on your toes, or it could be the repeated trauma on your toe nails from wearing shoes that do not fit appropriately. People who play specific sports like basketball, tennis, racquet ball or netball are typically more susceptible to a fungal toenail infection due to the fact that of the unexpected stopping movements that cause the foot to move inside the shoe.
The toenail fungus may first look like a small patch of discoloration on one of your toe nails, typically white or yellow. Lots of people might even just think that it is a scratch or mark and ignore it, till it has genuinely had a possibility to take hold of your nail, and turn it into an unsightly, thickened yellow/white breakable mess.
Once you have one infected toenail, it is a lot most likely to spread out from one toenail to another on the very same foot and even jump to your other foot, being spread by everyday items like your socks. Just washing your socks isn’t really sufficient to help prevent this — you need to do something in order to eliminate the bacteria or fungus. This might include soaking your socks in eucalyptus oil or bleach prior to cleaning, or switch to using an anti-fungal & anti-bacterial washing powder.
As soon as you notice the first signs of a fungal toenail infection, you ought to treat it to avoid more contaminating either yourself or other members of your home.
