Fungal Word Friday: Tinea

Well, since last weeks Fungal Word Friday was dermatophyte, I thought that it only fair to make this one the result of that one. Also known as dermatophytosis, or ringworm, tinea is a skin infection by fungus.
If you read about fungal infections you will see things like, "Tinea barbae, Tinea  capitis, Tinea pedis, or Tinea cruris." These may sound like they are different species, and you know what... maybe they are. But that isn't what those different names mean. As I said, tinea means fungal infection; and the second word in each of those terms actually indicates the area of the infection.
So Tinea barbae means Fungal Infection of the beard area:

Tinea capitis means Fungal Infection of the Cap(head):

   
Tinea pedis, you guessed it, fungal infection of the pedal, or foot:
  

And Tinea cruris... That one is a fungus on the Crotch:

  
All of these infections could be different dermatophytes, or they could be the same species, without microscopic details it is impossible to tell. But, to avoid colloquial diagnosis such as jock's itch, or athlete's foot, or even the completely misnamed ringworm(It isn't a worm!) a simple system of "Tinea" and "Body part" can tell us what and where of an infection, no matter what part of the world we are in.




Photo Creds:
Tinea Barbae-  CDC Creation Date: 1975
Tinea capitis- By Rotatebot [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Tinea Pedis- By James Heilman, MD (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Tinea cruris- By Robertgascoign (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons