Drug-resistant ringworm has officially made its way into 29 countries, including America, and the numbers are only climbing. According to a study published in the CDC’s journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, identifications of the fungus jumped from 237 in 2022 to 1,692 in 2025, a nearly sevenfold increase in just three years. The pathogen behind it, Trichophyton indotineae, causes the same itchy, ring-shaped rash as regular ringworm, but it shrugs off terbinafine, the antifungal cream or pill doctors usually reach for first. That resistance means what should clear up in a couple of weeks can drag on for months, spreading through skin-to-skin contact and shared towels, clothing, bedding, and hairbrushes along the way.
Per the CDC’s clinician guidance on emerging ringworm, the first confirmed U.S. cases showed up in New York City, with two patients identified in early 2023 after doctors noticed the rash wasn’t responding to standard treatment. Most of the documented cases worldwide have come out of Europe, but researchers are quick to point out that’s likely a reflection of who has the lab capacity to catch it, not where it’s actually spreading fastest. The report flags Africa, India and the Middle East as regions where the fungus is already common but almost certainly undercounted, since advanced testing and tracking tools aren’t as widely available there. In other words, the drug-resistant ringworm numbers reported so far are probably the floor, not the ceiling.
This isn’t the first time ringworm has made headlines for spreading through close contact, and it likely won’t be the last. Wrestlers, football players, and anyone who trains in a gym or shares mats and equipment have long been at higher risk for tinea gladiatorum, the wrestling-specific strain of ringworm, according to a CDC outbreak report out of Arizona that traced dozens of cases back to a single high school tournament. Barbershops, locker rooms, and shared workout gear create the same conditions the CDC describes for drug-resistant ringworm, even though the resistant strain identified in this new study is being tracked as its own, more stubborn threat. The lesson for anyone active in sports or fitness spaces is the same either way: don’t share towels, wash gear regularly, and get a rash checked out early instead of waiting it out.
Drug-resistant ringworm also isn’t operating in a vacuum. It’s showing up a few years after Candida auris, a different but equally stubborn fungus, forced its way into American hospitals. First identified in 2009 and reported in the U.S. in 2016, Candida auris clinical cases more than doubled between 2022 and 2024, climbing to 6,197 cases, according to a CDC surveillance report cited by Forbes. Unlike ringworm, Candida auris mostly threatens people who are already critically ill, and the CDC has labeled it the first fungal pathogen to earn an urgent antimicrobial threat designation. Taken together, the two outbreaks point to a bigger pattern infectious disease experts have been warning about for years: fungi are catching up to bacteria when it comes to developing resistance to the drugs meant to stop them, and treatment options for both are more limited than most people realize.
For now, drug-resistant ringworm remains treatable; it just takes more effort and often a trip to a dermatologist instead of a drugstore. If an itchy, ring-shaped rash doesn’t clear up after a couple of weeks of an over-the-counter antifungal cream, that’s typically the signal to stop self-treating and get it looked at, since a resistant strain usually needs a different medication and a longer course to fully clear.
The CDC’s tracking data shows this fungus is moving fast, and awareness is still the biggest tool available while researchers work out better testing and treatment options. Watching how it spreads over the next year will say a lot about whether the world is ready for what’s becoming a steady stream of drug-resistant fungal threats.
