Let’s take a moment to look at the image below
In your opinion, what causes the white spots? Tinea versicolor? Try writing in the comments column that answers tinea versicolor, I want to do a small survey.
Most people would think that these white spots are just ordinary skin diseases, oh this is tinea versicolor, then buy ointment at the nearest kiosk. This story also happened to one of my patients, Mr. Supri (not his real name), a middle-aged man who lives on the border of the village. For more than a month, Mr. Supri has been faithfully applying the ointment he got from his nephew, twice a day, morning and night, but there was no change, until he finally decided to go to the Community Health Center where I work
“Doc, I have tinea versicolor, I’ve bought ointment but it hasn’t gotten better until now. Why is that?” he asked.
“Let me see the ointment first, sir,” I said.
“Wow, this isn’t a ringworm ointment, sir, this is an itch ointment. In fact, it’s not suitable for ringworm because it contains corticosteroids,” I replied.
“Oh, that’s why it doesn’t get better, doc? Please give me a good medicine, doc,” he asked me.
“No wonder it didn’t get better, sir. The type of ointment was wrong,” I said to myself.
Before writing the prescription, I checked Mr. Supri, including looking at his tinea versicolor. There I was surprised, because I found that this was probably not tinea versicolor. I took the needle, I told him that I needed to do a pain test in the area of the white spots.
“Sir, does it hurt? How about this side?”, I said while moving the needle puncture.
“No, doc. I don’t feel anything,” he answered in surprise.
Long story short, after going through several stages of examination, I concluded that the white spots that Mr. Supri thought were tinea versicolor were leprosy .
For those who are not familiar , leprosy is a bacterial infection that attacks the skin and peripheral nerves. This disease, if not treated immediately, can cause serious complications such as losing fingers like this.
Currently, leprosy can be treated. Treatment can be done at the Community Health Center. For the readers of this article, my message is; remember the white numb spots, remember leprosy .