Allergy vs. Infection
Allergy is a commonly used term for any itching condition of skin. There are many other diseases which can cause itching. One of the common disease is infection of skin by parasite or fungus. As we have discussed previously, allergy is a hyper reactive immunity system and it need a stimuli to start. Interestingly, infection can produce allergy and allergy can also produce infection.
Allergy causes itching. As we scratch, we implant bacteria in our skin by our nail. Again itching can produce raw area and predisposes to secondary bacterial or viral infection. In this cases, treating allergy is important before trying to treat the infection. Some infection like parasitic or fungal can cause allergy and itching all over body. Here, treating the infection is important before giving any treatment for allergy.
There are many patients, where allergy and infection coexist. It is very important to identify the primary cause and start a specific treatment for adequate control of symptoms. Most of the time, treating the primary cause is sufficient. In a primary allergy case, treating the infection alone will not complete the treatment and it will recur again. Like wise, in a primary case of infection, treating the allergy alone can aggravate the situation.