Is dermatitis contagious

Chronic, atopic dermatitis is a condition that affects many individuals in this world. It is also referred to as eczema, atopy or, simply, dermatitis. People often mistake this condition for an allergy or an increased level of skin sensitivity. However, atopic dermatitis goes hand-in-hand with asthma or other allergies such as hay fever. This health problem may run in families, manifesting mainly through itching and rash appearing on the surface of the skin.

Additional Facts regarding Atopic Dermatitis

Linguistically, dermatitis stands for an inflammation of the skin while atopic depicts diseases that are blended together, running in families or being hereditary.

As for further symptoms connected with atopic dermatitis, apart from the inflammation and itching, which can be severe, swelling, cracking, weeping, scaling and crusting may all appear on the skin.

This condition is known to affect both sexes and all ages of people, even though it is most frequently seen in babies and young children. Nevertheless, it can appear later in life, bothering adults or children in their puberty. Dermatitis may last for a long time, getting better and worse interchangeably, flaring up or subsiding completely from time to time. Children usually keep dry skin as they grow older, but dermatitis vanishes – temporarily, in most cases.

Yet, certain environmental aspects like harsh weather, seasonal allergies or exposure to harsh cosmetic products, can either make ongoing dermatitis worse or lead to this condition.

Atopic Dermatitis and Other Types of Eczema

Since people often mix these conditions, the following lines will provide you with certain distinctive features.

Basically, eczema is a condition manifesting through skin inflammation. Many subtypes of this skin problem exist, including dermatitis. However, atopic dermatitis occurs along with asthma and allergies, not manifesting solely through skin problems.

As for eczema, it can come in many forms such as contact eczema, allergic contact eczema, seborrheic eczema, nummular eczema, neurodermatitis or stasis dermatitis. All these types of eczema have different features and affect the skin of the sufferer in specific ways.

Is Dermatitis Contagious?

Many people fear atopic dermatitis, believing that it can infect them or affect them through contact with other sufferers. However, there are no reasons for such worry since atopic dermatitis is not contagious. Therefore, any kind of skin contact cannot lead to the onset of the same disease affecting the other person. On the other hand, you should be careful around people with skin infections caused by staph bacteria, herpes, yeast or fungi.