Swimmer’s Itch

The first symptoms can begin within a few minutes to days of exposure to the contaminated water. First you may experience tingling, burning, or itching of the skin. Small reddish pimples appear within 12 hours. Pimples may develop into small blisters. Itching may last up to a week or more, but will go away gradually. Scratching the areas may result in secondary bacterial infection. Because swimmer’s itch is caused by an allergic reaction, the more often you are exposed to contaminated water, the more intense and immediate symptoms of swimmer’s itch will be.

You can get it swimmer’s itch by swimming or wading in waters contaminated with the parasite. The parasite larvae burrow into human skin and causes allergic reaction and rash. The risk of being infected is greater in shallow water by the shoreline with warm temperature. Although anyone can get swimmer’s itch, children are infected more often since they tend to swim, wade, and play in the shallow water more than adults. Also, they are less likely to towel dry themselves when leaving the water. Person-to-person spread does not occur, since these larvae cannot develop and survive in a human host.

Diagnosing swimmer’s itch can be a challenge because the rash can resemble other skin problems, such as poison ivy. There are no specific tests to diagnose swimmer’s itch.

Most cases of swimmer’s itch do not require medical attention. If you have a rash, you may try the following for relief:

• Use corticosteroid cream
• Apply cool compresses to the affected areas
• Bathe in Epsom salts or baking soda
• Soak in colloidal oatmeal baths
• Apply baking soda paste to the rash (made by stirring water into baking soda until it reaches a paste-like consistency)
• Use an anti-itch lotion

If itching is severe, your doctor may recommend a prescription medication. Although it is very difficult, try not to scratch as doing so may cause the rash to become infected.