How contagious is ring worm?

I was prepared to write about epigenetics again and go more into the chemical reactions that take place, how the methylation occurs, but recent happenings in my life have changed my topic for today.

I just adopted a 3 month old kitten and he had his first check-up today. He has a patch of dry skin with no hair above his right eye, which I originally thought was due to a wound from a fight earlier in his life, and then someone suggested it could be mange...a skin disease caused by mites, but the veterinarian diagnosed it as ring worm. She warned me that ring worm is very contagious and can be passed from human to human, animal to animal, human to pet, and pet to human. It's transferred by direct contact, and of course my kitten has shared my bed, snuggled up next to me, for the past week. The veterinarian told me she has been working for 20 years with animals, has seen plenty of ring worms in dogs/cats, and has only gotten it once or twice. On the other hand, there have been lab technicians that merely touch the animal and have symptoms within a few days.

A little background on ring worm. First of all it's not actually a worm. It's caused by a fungus that gets under the skin and can appear in many forms, a red ring on the skin, red, dry, scaly patches on the skin, or a rash. Ring worm is caused by many different species of the fungi, but the type my kitten has is Microsporum canis, which fluoresced green under UV light. Browsing through internet postings on ring worm I've discovered it can lay dormant up to two weeks or can appear within a few days of exposure, so that should make my next few weeks fun. It is curable through topical creams or orally ingested pills. It's not a very fast treatment, it can take up to a month, minimum, to fully clear up.

After reading up on ring worm, I have fully cleaned my apartment and will clean in every few days to remove any spores that might be dropped off my kitten; these spores can stick around for up to 18 months, it's not like a bacteria or parasite that dies within hours of not being on a host. Questions I thought of were why did some personal exposed to ring worm get infected the first time and others can have repeated contact and get it once or twice? What is it about some people that makes them more susceptible to diseases and infections?

Epigenetics could offer explanation to why some people are more susceptible than others depending on the childhood they led, if they were sickly as children and always took medication, not building up a strong immune system, or if there was something in their parent's past that could effect them. I was raised with the idea that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, a little dirt in the wound wouldn't hurt so fingers crossed I fight it off, thought with the amount of direct contact I've had we'll see. And I guess I did bring it back around to epigenetics.