Are Hives Related To Ringworm Infection?

Question: Are hives related to ringworm infection?

Answer: Because hives can occur from a variety of causes including allergic reactions and often in the setting of a wide variety of infections, people sometimes mistake the eruption on the skin known as ringworm for an eruption that may also resemble hives.

These skin eruptions, though, are quite different. In the case of hives: in some cases it's due to an allergic reaction, in some cases it's due to a viral infection.

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Ringworm is due to a very specific type of a fungal infection in the skin. And therefore -- although both hives and ringworm have itch as a major symptom and red, raised bumps on the skin -- the therapies are quite different.

So if there's a confusion as to the nature of the lesions on the skin, one should get checked out and take a look to see if the lesions are more likely to be a fungal infection like ringworm.

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