Papapitsios developed a rash on their groin that looked just like ringworm in February, but he knew it was something more. The artist, filmmaker, and HIV advocate, who uses they/he pronouns, stays up to date on emerging sexually transmitted infections and had read about a cluster of fungal cases in Minnesota reported in July 2025 that initially presented as ringworm, but were actually a newly discovered STI: trichophyton mentagrophytes genotype VII, colloquially known as TMVII.

The fungal infection, discovered as an STI in 2010 and first reported in the U.S. in 2024, can seem like other forms of ringworm such as jock itch or athlete’s foot at first. But it later transforms into a scaly rash and lesions on the groin, buttocks, and face. When Papapitsios suspected he had contracted it, he felt responsible to tell the people he had recently had sex with; he also needed to sound the alarm because, at the time, there was virtually no public health information available about how to minimize the spread of TMVII.

“It made me angry,” he says. “If I don’t have information about something, then I want to find the information, and I want to let everybody know.”

WHOA! I had no idea there was a new STI making the rounds. Practice safe sex y’all!!

Worth reading for awareness … especially given some of the bravado on Lemmy regarding butt stuff

Dont have to worry about that if youre a proud femcel community member