Swimmer’s itch is skin rash that is red and patchy and itches on those part of the body that have been exposed to water while swimming. Its technical name is cercarial dermatitis and it is known in certain countries as “rice paddy itch”, “clam diggers itch”, “sawah” in Malaysia, “kubure” or “kobanyo” in Japan, “hoi con” in Thailand and “Duck worms” the US.
Signs and symptoms: Within minutes of emerging from swimming in infested water, you will experience tingling, burning or itching of the skin. Soon after, you will see small red pimples, usually within 12 hours of swimming. These pimples can develop into small blisters. Itching goes on for a week.
Its not a disease
- Its not contagious
- Its not dangerous to us
- Its not found on everyone
Causes: Aquatic or amphibious snails release the larval parasite, cercaria, and dermatitis when it mistakenly penetrates a swimmer?s skin through the host, usually a duck. This is common both in freshwater and in marine coastal environments. Carriers of this infection are the common grackles, red-winged blackbirds, ducks, geese, swans, muskrats and moles.
These parasites are released from infected snails, which migrate through the water, and can penetrate human skin. Once they have penetrated our skin, these parasites remain in the skin and die there but can cause an allergy in some people.
However, this is not a severe itch in fact, after the initial itching, it disappears without treatment. Itching occurs within 48 hours and may go up to a week. A major cause of swimmer’s itch is the presence of trematode parasites of aquatic or migrating birds. Their life cycles involve snails as the first host and aquatic birds or mammals as the final host.
Jellyfish nematocysts remain active for months and can persist in clothing or swim wear with symptoms recurring whenever you wear the same clothes.
I recommend the following to get rid of swimmer’s itch:
1. Clean the skin – take a shower and rinse with natural apple cider vinegar
2. Dab with a cotton ball – colloidal silver on each red spot that shows up – and be sure to do this if you are scratching – we need to prevent skin infection.
3. Make a paste from diatemaceous earth (DE) and colloidal silver. Blot some of this paste on each spot and let it dry.
4. Make a cream out of emu oil and tea tree oil. Apply to itchy patches. This will calm the itch.