Prickly heat in the tropics

[moosp]

A good friend, over eighty years old, has retired to a hot and steamy country and sent this heartfelt request:

"...what is your remedy for prickly heat rash....driving me nuts....will try any home remedy."

I've seen powders that claim to be for prickly heat, any recommendations? Apart from the usual googled answers, anybody got a good idea for relief of this?

Many thanks

[Nigel Osborn]

I found Johnson's Baby Powder much better than the prickly heat powders. Although in Singapore I used a powder called Agnesia I think or some similar name.

[moosp]

Thanks for that. I seem to remember back in my dim and distant past that prickly heat is of fungal origin. Is an anti-fungal prescribed for this?

Here in China a dear old Chinese lady friend of mine recommends lying in the sun, as suggested by her grandmother (circa 1890), which would suggest a fungal origin, and UV light to kill it.

When I was in Arabia the answer always seemed to be ventilation, hence the Arab garb. This would be consitent with fungal, so maybe antifungals are the way to go.

I'd like to assist the old boy, as we go way back.

[fleigle]

I'd have to agree with the fungal diagnosis. I tried everything in Oman and athletes foot powder seemed to work the best, being able to dry out was also very useful.
I know this sounds "off the wall", but have him try a different soap powder/detergent for his underwear, I turn out to be very sensitive to T*de.
Lots of luck, a miserable condition.
f

[cavortingcheetah]

Get thee to a dermatologist for a little skin test, fungal, eczema or whatever. It's only a quick skin scrape which, while irritating, is not painful.
Whilst you're awaiting that laboratory result, which may well take a month to grow, try the following.

Do not use soap of any sort on the affected area.
Pat dry carefully after rinsing and make sure that there is a seperate towel for use on the affected areas only.
Give the areas a little sunshine, very carefully, to determine whether this may help. It usually does whether the irritation is either fungal or eczematic.
Use gentle antiseptic powder all the time. Aloe Vera powder from Crabtree and Evelyn is particularly good.
If living in a hot and steamy country, adopt the skirt and short dress so often worn by the local men and, if the rash is in the groin, which I expect it is? Then avoid wearing underpants if possible and keep on applying the talcum until you look rather like an Arabian Sheikh looming out of the desert as, was it Omar Shariff (?) did in Lawrence of Arabia.
Try to avoid creams until you have at least been for a scrape. Hydro -Cortisone, for instance, will beat the thing into retreat but will not actually cure it. Further manifestations may well arise, bubbling to the surface.

It is a nightmare actually and unless experienced, first hand, in the tropics, especially whilst working in uniform, cannot be imagined. In the groin area, rashes can be very socially debillitating. I would hope that your friend would still find this to be the case but I expect he might have out grown certain embarrasments of the boudoir variety?
Good luck to him.
I am not a doctor but I have a little practical experience of this.

[Agaricus bisporus]

I'm with CCheetah on most of this.

Wash and rinse carefully and regularly. Use seperate towels for affected area.

Wear cotton sarong w no underpants and loosest cotton shirt you can find. If socially possible wear nothing over affected area at all, and if in groin don't sit with legs together - the more air the better.

My magic powder is "Cuticura" brand lightly medicated talc. Works well for me. I found greasy products made things worse.

Expose affected areas carefully carefully to short periods of direct sun, if this gives relief, continue - carefully.

Luck!

[moosp]

Many thanks for these, it will give him something to work on. His present witch-doctor prescribes starch powder, which sounds like an ideal substrate to grow things

[Erebus]

prickly heat

I suggest a product by Ego pharmaceuticals, sold in Australia as "Mycoderm." It comes in the form of a white powder, to be applied once the area has been dried thoroughly.

[Agaricus bisporus]

Though what the locals would make of an 80yr old gent wearing a skirt and carefully sunbathing his white-powdered tadger is beyond even my imagination!



Best of luck to him - I hope all this works!

[Flying Felix]

If it’s what we have suffered from in the past, it is due the sweat pours getting clogged due to sweat, dead skin, dust, sand etc and a bacterial / fungal growth. It’s not directly associated to personal hygiene as you don’t expect people to shower 2 – 3 times a day.
The treatment however is a little harsh; “herbiscrub” (it’s the liquid soap used by surgeons) and a nail brush.

good luck

[got caught]

If he/she is sure its prickly heat, then keeping out of direct sunlight should cure the problem.

[Saab Dastard]

Though what the locals would make of an 80yr old gent wearing a skirt and carefully sunbathing his white-powdered tadger is beyond even my imagination!

No No! It's "prickly heat in the tropics", not "tropically heat in the pr*cks"

[Agaricus bisporus]

Here we are all having a bit of a laugh at this poor chap's predicament, and all we're doing is offering amateur medical advice which is pretty damn risky really. This is a pilot's forum, many of us are gullible enough to believe in herbal remedies, aromatherapy and acupuncture...not to mention sub-aquatic macrame!

Go straight to the horse's mouth, get the real answer, not the PPRuNe amateur hogwash from the NHS itself;

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/search/i...t&cs=iso-8859- and type "prickly heat" into the search box.

This is how real Doctors treat it.

All be fine as long as the diagnosis was correct in the first place...