Ringworm

First off, the good news. Ringworm isn’t actually a worm. Yay! But it is a fungal rash that can spread from one person to another. Boo! Ringworm gets its name from the appearance that this particular family of fungus gives infected skin. It usually has this classic thinnish raised red ring around the outside looking like a thin worm in a ring-like formation. The rash on the inside often has a dry flaky appearance, which is why families will often put an over-the-counter topical steroid like hydrocortisone on it. That will take the redness away but will actually make the fungus grow more, so as soon as the hydrocortisone wears off, the rash comes back worse than ever. 

If we see a rash with that classic ringworm appearance, we usually stick with an over-the-counter antifungal like clotrimazole 1% applied 2-3 times a day for a week or so to get rid of it. Because it is a fungal rash, sometimes if we just keep from scratching at it and add some extra drying measures that in itself can be enough to get rid of the rash. (Fungi hate dry areas and love warm, humid areas.) But I never trust kids not to itch this and by doing so make it easy to spread to others.