a very sick me

Favus has the dubious distinction of being the first disease in which a fungus was discovered as the culprit, back in 1839.

It looks like a bunch of yellowish, circular, cup-shaped crusts grouped in patches like a piece of honeycomb, each about the size of a split pea, with a hair projecting in the center. These increase in size and become crusted over. Growth continues to take place for several months, when the scab comes away, leaving a shining bare patch destitute of hair. The disease is essentially chronic, lasting from ten to twenty years.

During initial infection, the fungal spores would appear to enter through the unbroken cutaneous surface, and to germinate mostly in and around the hair follicle and sometimes in the shaft of the hair. Luckily, tinea favosa is so readily treatable that it is among the diseases most likely to be completely eliminated by medicine.