What is a fungal infection of the nail?
Fungal infections of the nails are also known as onychomycosis, as tinea unguium, and as ringworm of the nails. The fungi in question are usually those that cause athlete’s foot – a common infection of the skin of the feet. In athlete’s foot the fungi live in the keratin that makes up the outer layer of the skin, but they can also invade the hard keratin of which nails are made. When this happens, the result is a fungal infection of a nail. What causes onychomycosis? Fungi spreading from athlete’s foot (known as ‘dermatophyte fungi’) cause most fungal nail infections. Far less often a nail infection is due to other types of fungi, usually yeasts (eg. Candida) and moulds (eg. Scopulariopsis), which do not cause athlete’s foot. These like to attack nails that are already weak, perhaps after an old injury. Fungal infections of toenails are common, those of fingernails far less so. Both are seen most often in the elderly. Are they hereditary? No, but several family members may have them at
