In some of these tea tree oil products, the oil additive is used to fight certain fungal infections (known as tinea) which can cause ring worm, jock itch or athlete's foot. While tinea itself is not life threatening, infections do cause discomfort. And infection is easy, transmittable by direct touch or by touching surfaces that have had contact with those who are infected by the fungus. Examples of these surfaces? The shower room at the gym where there are a lot of strangers stepping, which is usually wet and a perfect breeding ground for fungi. Not only inanimate surfaces, but also pet-to-human contact can cause tinea.
Because the infection by tinea is a local effect, for example isolated to the feet or isolated to the arms, the symptoms can vary depending on which part of the body is affected. For example, interestingly enough, a manifestation of tinea is a red rash on the skin that is like a ring. The ring spreads out from the site of infection, as the body's immune system kills the fungus it migrates outward, forming the rings. Another example is "scalp ringworm", which is a manifestation of the same on the scalp under the hair. Unfortunately, on the scalp an effect of tinea is loss of hair leaving bald spots. Children are unusually susceptible to this type of ring worm. A very common example of tinea is athlete's foot, which can happen on the skin between one's toes, or within the nail of the toe. For nail fungal infections, the most effective treatment is oral antifungal medication, followed by topical treatment. Topical treatments such as tea tree oil products have low efficacy in comparison, but can be used as initial treatment before embarking on difficult oral medication which can have deleterious effects on the liver and lasts many months. Finally, tinea also manifests as "jock itch", which is an itchy rash in the groin area.
There are OTC topical treatments that will kill tinea infection. There are also stronger treatments which require a prescription from a physician.
If you go to a physician for this condition, it'll be necessary to diagnose this disease by eliminating competing theories such as psoriasis, which may show symptoms similar to tinea. To do so, the physician will ask questions about possible sources of contact to verify or eliminate possibilities. Finally, a physician may take samples of the skin using scraping to send to the pathologist and confirm the presence of fungi. This can be confirmed by visual inspection, but also by a method called "fungal culture". Essentially, a small amount of the skin scraping is placed on a culturing medium that can grow fungus. After a few days, the fungus if present show up very visibly, magnified by growth on the culturing medium. This will confirm the tinea infection to prepare for treatment. Given this information, one should know the caveat that tea tree oil products have not been evaluated by the FDA for efficacy in eliminating tinea, so a consumer is using these products at his or her own risk.
