A ringworm case in my group: what to do in the first 48 hours

Recognising ringworm

Ringworm is not a worm but a microscopic fungus, a dermatophyte, that feeds on the keratin of the skin. On the body it shows as a round or oval patch, red or pink, often clearer in the centre, with a scaly edge. It itches. In wrestlers and grapplers it appears where skin rubs the mat and the opponent: arms, neck, shoulders, face.

It spreads through skin-to-skin contact, shared objects (towels, gis, mouthguards left on the bench) and shared surfaces, including the mat and the locker room floor. The diagnosis is made by a doctor or a pharmacist, not from a photo on a phone.

Hour 0: isolate, without shaming

The person leaves the mat and does not come back before medical advice and a treatment started. Wrestling and grappling competition rules generally require several days of antifungal treatment before a return to contact; the same logic applies in training.

Say it simply, in private, without blame: ringworm is caught by training, not by poor hygiene. A member who fears being singled out hides the patch under a rashguard, and that is how the whole group gets it.

Hour 1: inform the group

Everyone who shared the surface over the past one to two weeks needs to know, because symptoms do not appear right after contact. A short message: what it is, what it looks like, what to do if you have a patch (see a doctor, do not train) and what the gym is doing on its side. Gyms that communicate fast lose fewer members than those that stay quiet; silence gets noticed, then gets talked about.

• Describe the lesion and ask people to check arms, neck, face
• Restate: see a doctor, do not roll with a patch
• Announce the mat reset and its date
• Restate the routine: shower, clean gi, no shared towels

Hour 2 to 48: reset the mat

Dermatophyte spores persist on surfaces long after the person has left. A mop and a spray bottle treat the rolling surface; spores lodged in the seams, in the grain of the vinyl and under the tiles stay. The reset means taking the tiles apart, vacuuming the seams and the underside, treating both faces with dry steam, then applying a registered disinfectant for the prescribed dwell time across the whole surface, not just around the affected group’s area. The surfaces around the mat follow: edges, padded walls, benches.

Schedule the intervention outside class hours, ideally before the affected group’s next session. That is exactly what emergency decontamination is for.

The following 4 to 8 weeks

A ringworm case is often the symptom of an insufficient routine. After the reset, two things prevent a repeat: surface disinfection after every class block, with a registered product and the right dwell time, and a deep clean at a fixed interval. And one posted rule: no untreated patch on the mat, whatever the belt.