Atypical cutaneous candidiasis mimicking tinea corporis in an otherwise healthy young man: A case report

Description

Sibo Liu, Yinggai Song, and Aiping Wang describe a 2026 case of skin candidiasis that looked like ordinary ringworm. Candida yeast normally lives harmlessly on skin, and its infections usually favor moist skin folds. Their patient, a healthy twenty-eight-year-old man, instead had itchy, scaly red patches on both arms and his upper abdomen for seven months.

He had applied a steroid cream without supervision for two months before seeking care, which can mask fungal infection. The patches were first treated as tinea corporis, the classic ringworm pattern. Microscope checks showed yeast forms, and two cultures in a row grew Candida, with a color test pointing to Candida albicans. A two-week course of oral itraconazole plus a topical antifungal cleared the lesions completely. The authors stress laboratory confirmation for long-lasting scaly rashes in unusual places, especially after steroid use.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13251468