Contagious rash outbreak on the rise is linked to sexual activity
Key Takeaways
A rare genital fungus was detected in the US for the first time this summer.
Now, a total of four cases have been reported in New York City.
The fungus may spread via sexual contact.
A rare genital fungus was detected in the United States for the first time this June. The fungus, Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII (TMVII), is contagious and may spread through sexual contact, particularly among men who have sex with men.[] TMVII can produce an itchy rash, sometimes referred to as ‘jock itch.’[] It can be highly inflammatory and very painful.
This October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report detailing four more reported cases of TMVII, which were detected between April and July 2024.[] All four cases were found in New York City among men in their 30s who reported recent sexual contact with other men.
In a public letter published in July, former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD offered some details of the first identified TMVII case, including that it occurred in a man who had reported recent travel to Europe and California, and that the patient's rash was initially misdiagnosed as eczema.[]
Prior to the US reports, TMVII had been detected among men who have sex with men in France since March 2021, and among men who traveled to Southeast Asia for sex tourism, according to the CDC.[]
How to know if a patient has TMVII
While TMVII is rare, its presence in the US should not be ignored. New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene encourages doctors to be “suspicious” of TMVII in patients who display symptoms like:
Inflammatory skin lesions on the genitals, buttocks, or face
Painful skin lesions on the genitals, buttocks, or face
Persistent skin lesions on the genitals, buttocks, or face[]
To determine whether these symptoms are a result of TMVII, physicians will need to order a fungal culture of skin scrapings for genetic sequencing. Not all labs, however, provide these services for TMVII, and results can take weeks to collect. The CDC recommends that clinicians initiate empiric therapy based on “epidemiologic and clinical features,” even if they have not confirmed TMVII via lab tests.[]
How to treat TMVII
If a patient is diagnosed with TMVII, treatment may involve topical and/or oral antifungal medications. Treatments can include oral terbinafine or itraconazole.
Patients may need to take medications for up to 3 months in order for lesions to revolve, according to the CDC.
What this means for you
A rare, painful, and contagious genital fungus was identified in the US this summer. If you identify patients with this fungus—which can present as a painful, inflamed rash in the groin, buttocks, or face area—you should start them on antifungal medications.