Is eczema contagious?

Eczema is a skin disease that occurs very frequently within the human pool. Statistically, one out of every 10 people has suffered from this disease once or more in their lives. That's a defining statistic because eczema is not common cold. It is a tough disease to be endured and can get fatal too in one of its forms; Eczema Herpeticum. Eczema creates perforations and rashes on the skin surface. Often, it is associated with a genetic problem and at other times, it may be the result of obesity, greasy skin, HIV replicating infection and so on and so forth. At still other times, they might be characterized by extreme dryness.

It is widely believed that those who are allergic to pollens, animal dander, dust mites and have shown asthmatic tendencies in the past can be vulnerable targets for eczema. Largely, the medical fraternity believes that eczema is a result of an over-reactive immune system towards a certain allergen which over asserts itself on the body and thus creates a sensation of itching or utter aridity.

Xerotic eczema or eczema herpeticum or dyshidrotic eczema are all variations of the disease that require being tackled with a lot of care. Each has different symptom structure and each have different potential to harm. For instance, those inflicted with eczema shall sleep with hand gloves on or else they might insinuate a lesion and create a vesicle rupture. This may result in the attack of a simplex herpes virus that creates eczema herpeticum.

If one of your friends catches it and you know its fatal nature, would you like to get in his close quarters or keep your safe distance? In fact, whenever someone learns about a disease, the first question that he proposes about it is whether it's contagious or not? This softens or hardens his/her stance towards the disease. Similarly, no one wants to have these skin perforations on their skin surface, humans are still obsessed with their appearances and while they want to extend succor and cooperation to those who suffer from it, they do not wish themselves to be inflicted with the disease. This brings us to the crux question - is eczema contagious?

No, eczema is not contagious. The medical brotherhood would instrumentally declare it as being non-contagious but that still does not take away from its widespread nature so there has got to be some kind of a connect. May be, a few geographical areas are more prone to catching this disease than others. Even otherwise, eczema though medically cleared in the “is it contagious or not?” debate, makes one feel a little doubtful. A mother using baby wipes of chemical nature on a child would find herself feeling skin irritations on hands.

This is just one instance. Another one may be derived from proximity to a patient. If you tend to sit too long with a patient, you would feel that even your hands are beginning to group some kind of rashness and psychological lesions might begin to erupt. Though, it is important to reiterate that medical science is sure in its conviction that eczema cannot travel from one person to other. In fact, the basic symptoms of eczema are so common that with a little psychological goading, a person can actually feel as if he has acquired a few. After all, what is there in feeling one's skin a little redder? An ant bite after sitting with an eczema patient can take the form of skin rashes.

Many also argue that if the disease is not contagious then what makes it appear on siblings and parents? Well! The answer is linked to 8 letter term heredity. But it's not so simple either. Many people who suffer from eczema have unequivocally shouted that their husbands and boyfriends have shown tendency towards/symptoms of the disease. This is largely inexplicable and yet medical science remains strong on its conviction. It has suggested that eczema being a common occurrence can occur in a boyfriend of a sufferer by the sheer law of probability. It's not the same as lighting hitting you or you landing on earth if thrown in the universe at random.

Now, here is a disclaimer from the medical fraternity that the detractors of the theory would be glued to. While eczema is not contagious at all and shall we say AT ALL, infections arising out of eczema may just be contagious. Now, for understanding this, we have to go to the root cause of eczema once more. Now, we know that it's the over-reactive immune response to an allergen or similar micron, thus it weakens the body immunity providing soft targets to staphylococcus bacteria among other viruses and bacteria. So an infection like a staph can be contagious. In such times when you know that the infections have begun to manifest in a patient, it's advisable to keep some distance.