Do you ever smell your socks? A Chinese man ended up in intensive care with a serious fungal infection after sniffing his stink socks. But is that possible?
Chinese newspaper websites report on the remarkable story. By smelling his dirty socks every day, the man is said to have inhaled traces of athlete’s foot. The spores would have led to life-threatening pneumonia.
Clothes are not washed hot enough
“Fungi and bacteria in clothing can cause disorders”, says Errol Prens, professor of dermatology at Erasmus MC. “To save the environment, clothing and textiles are washed at a lower temperature. As a result, all fungal threads in socks and shoes are no longer killed.” But how do you prevent those fungi? Prins advises: “change shoes regularly and wear as little clothing with synthetic materials as possible.” It also helps to iron your clothes. “Ironing takes place at a higher temperature than washing. Molds cannot stand that.”
Getting pneumonia from smelling dirty socks is therefore theoretically not impossible, according to the professor. Still, he thinks there is little chance that a healthy person could get sick from sniffing stockings.
Only in weakened people
According to director Michael Rutgers of the Lung Fund, 250,000 people get pneumonia every year. Usually bacteria or a virus are the cause. “Fungal infections in the lungs are less common,” said Rutgers. “They are also more difficult to treat”. He does not consider the chance that the Chinese man got the lung disease by smelling his socks. He suspects that the man was already weakened before he got a lung infection. “It is quite possible that the generally polluted air in China has also played a role.”
Prins and Rutgers therefore agree. Fungi from dirty socks can theoretically cause lung infections, but only in sick or weakened people.
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but you can’t get a lung infection from wearing a dirty mask?
this is why people don’t believe..