Fighting feral foot fungi
Volume 11, No. 47, July 13, 2006

ADF members are often required to live in communal conditions either at sea, on base or on deployment. Healthy foot hygiene is as essential as understanding foot problems.
The average person takes between 5000 and 8000 steps a day. It is therefore not surprising that 40 per cent of Australians develop painful foot problems.

The risk of picking up chronic foot problems increases when you commonly use gyms, swimming pools, showers and saunas. Fungus can be picked up by walking barefoot in communal areas.
Fungal nail infection, known to doctors as onychomycosis, causes thickening, roughness and often splitting of the nail. The nail may become discoloured (turn white, yellow or brown), become very thick and separate from the nail bed. The toenail may also split or crumble. It is caused by the fungus spreading under the toenail and into the nailbed.

Members involved in sporting activities are at an increased risk of traumatizing their nails, providing an opening for infections. The fungus gains entry under the nail via a broken, closely cut or ingrown toenail.
If you have any of the following foot problems, see your ADF health centre.

• corns;
  
• calluses — areas of hard, dead skin;
  
• athlete’s foot;
  
• bone or joint swellings or bunions;
  
• ingrown toenails;
  
• discoloured or thickened toenails; or
  
• crumbling or splitting toenails.

Info sourced fromhttp://www.mydr.com.au/default.asp?article=3440

.