Why do rose thorns itch

Why Samuel L. Five-story condo building going up on former strip club site in downtown Oceanside. San Diego. Little Leaguers in Logan Heights striking out with city over much-needed ballfield repairs. San Diego Museum of Art photography exhibition includes greats of 20th century. Pruning roses, blackberries, pyracantha, bougainvillea and other thorny plants is a potentially hazardous gardening activity.

The sharp thorns on these plants can cut and poke holes in your skin, and the small wounds provide an entry point for pathogenic organisms. This need not keep you from growing thorny plants if you take some simple precautions.

Gardens are full of microbes. Most are benign but a few can be harmful. Having healthy, unbroken skin is your first line of defense against infection. The best way to protect your skin while pruning is by wearing protective clothing such as gloves, a long-sleeved shirt, long pants and shoes that cover your feet. Depending on the situation, you should also wear safety glasses or goggles to protect your eyes and a dust mask or respirator to protect your lungs from airborne particles. Each year some people in the county usually get sporotrichosis, also known as rose thorn or rose gardener disease.

It results from infection by the fungus Sporothrix schenckii and related species that are present in soil and on living and dead plant material. People who handle thorny plants, sphagnum moss or bales of hay are at increased risk of getting sporotrichosis.

The fungal disease usually affects the skin on the fingers, hands or arms. The fungus can spread to the lymphatic system and move on to the joints and bones, where it ends up attacking the central nervous system and lungs when the thorn or thorns are deeply embedded.

Diagnosis can be complicated because the condition is relatively uncommon. When an ulcer does present, it is often mistaken by a physician as a staph or strep infection and gets treated accordingly.

It is only when the antibiotics prescribed fail to eradicate the ulcer that physicians look outside the box. Many people enjoy the fragrance and beauty of roses in their gardens, and they should continue to do so. The best way to prevent rose-thorn disease is to wear appropriate gloves when pruning and to wash any minor punctures with an antibacterial soap. Cat bites and scratches can spread the fungus that causes sporotrichosis, and other diseases. This fungus is most often spread by stray cats and pet cats that are allowed outdoors.

Learn more about sporotrichosis from cats. Sporothrix , the fungus that causes sporotrichosis, lives in the environment in soil and on plant matter such as sphagnum moss, rose bushes, hay, or wood. The microscopic fungus can enter the skin through small cuts or scrapes. In rare cases, breathing in the fungus can cause a pulmonary lung infection. However, in South America, a type of sporotrichosis caused by Sporothrix brasiliensis spreads through scratches or bites from animals, particularly cats.

This fungal illness is not cat-scratch disease, a bacterial illness spread by cats — which occurs worldwide, wherever cats live. Your healthcare provider will take a small tissue sample biopsy of the infected area of the body for laboratory tests. The laboratory will usually perform a fungal culture to find out what is causing the infection.

Most cases of sporotrichosis only involve the skin or the tissues underneath the skin. These infections are not life-threatening, but must be treated with prescription antifungal medicine for several months. The most common treatment for this type of sporotrichosis is itraconazole, taken by mouth for 3 to 6 months.

Supersaturated potassium iodide SSKI is another treatment option for skin sporotrichosis. SSKI and azole drugs like itraconazole should not be used if you are pregnant. After the first treatment with amphotericin B, you may receive itraconazole by mouth, for a total of at least 1 year of antifungal treatment. People with sporotrichosis in the lungs may also need surgery to cut away the infected tissue. Diagnosed sporotrichosis is rare, but the number of cases is difficult to determine because there is no national surveillance for it in the United States.

Population-based incidence estimates for sporotrichosis were obtained from laboratory surveillance in the San Francisco Bay Area during — and suggested a yearly rate of less than one case per 1 million population. Sporotrichosis may be more common in other parts of the world, such as Latin America. In the United States, sporotrichosis outbreaks have occurred among people who touched sphagnum moss or hay, such as forestry workers, 8 , 9 tree nursery and garden center workers, and people who worked with or played on hay bales.

An ongoing outbreak of sporotrichosis is occurring in some cities in Brazil, where the infection has become common in outdoor cats and can spread to humans through bites or scratches. Learn more about this problem. Here are the signs of an ACL tear. Wound dehiscence occurs when a surgical incision reopens.

Discover risk factors, tips to ensure proper healing, serious complications, and more. Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Rose Thorns and Infection. No matter what you call them, rose thorns are sharp enough to penetrate your skin and have the ability to pass infectious material into the wound, such as: dirt fertilizer bacteria fungi garden chemicals These substances delivered into the skin by a thorn could result in a number of diseases, including: sporotrichosis plant-thorn synovitis mycetoma Read on to learn the symptoms to watch for and how to treat infections from rose thorns.

Plant-thorn synovitis. Read this next. Medically reviewed by Shuvani Sanyal, MD. Open Wound. Medically reviewed by Andrew Gonzalez, M. How to Identify and Treat an Infected Cut. Medically reviewed by Debra Rose Wilson, Ph.