Maryland Gym-Goer Is Out of Work for Weeks with 'Intense and Severe' Ringworm Because She Didn't Do This One Thing

Mar. 15, 2025

Jamie Samnang says she contracted ringworm from gym equipment.Photo:Kennedy News and Media

Kennedy News and Media

An avid gym goer thought she had a badmosquitobite — until it began spreading all over her body, a bad case of the fungal infectionringworm.

“Bite cream wasn’t working and I started to get these red raised bumps that were filled with pus,” Samnang said. The itching was “intense and severe,” she explains, sharing that “I was itching so severely that I was bleeding.”

Jamie Samnang.Kennedy News and Media

Items like workout equipment, Samnang says, sharing that she’d placed her bare arms on a machine before wiping it down first.

Recovery was rough, she said, sharing she needed to apply an anti-fungal cream three times a day for three weeks. “I couldn’t go to work. It was really, really bad. It was so severe,” she said, explaining that she had to “bleach, I had to sterilize, I had to get new bed sheets and I couldn’t sleep near my husband because I was going to get him infected.”

Now when she works out “everything is long sleeved,” Samnang, who used to wear short sleeves or a sports bra, says. “I just can’t take that risk because it was so severe.”

“It’s a nightmare,” she said. “Not everybody is always going to remember to wipe down and unfortunately I was one of those.”

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source: people.com