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Tinea Capitis in Primary and Middle School Students in South-East of Iran

Received: 25 March 2014     Accepted: 5 May 2014     Published: 20 May 2014
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Abstract

Tinea capitis is a common infection among school children, still raising public health importance in many countries. There are unpublished reports of head fungal infections, particularly Tinea capitis, in school children of Sistan and Baluchestan province, at South-East of Iran. However, the reports are only based on the clinical evidences and there is no information about the prevalence and the agents of the infection. The present study was designed to determine the prevalence of Tinea capitis based on demographic information as well as laboratory determination of the causative fungal species in primary and middle school students of seven districts in Sistan and Baluchestan in 2011. During this cross-sectional study, 2060 children from urban and rural primary and middle schools were randomly selected and subjected to the survey by informed consents. Their demographic information was recorded in questionnaire and specimens from suspicious students were taken by scraping the scalp and removing hair stubs. Microscopic examination and culture and subculture of the specimens were performed using Sabouraud’s Dextrose Agar (S) and S + Chloramphenicol + Cyclohexamide (SCC) media and slide culture for identification of fungal agents. The surveyed children contained 56.7% female and 43.3% male. A number of 110 students (5.8%) were suspected to have Tinea capitis. Thirty-seven cases of Tinea capitis were confirmed by demonstration of dermatophytes spores or mycelium in direct smears, consisting of 25 (22.73%) ectothrix, 8 (7.27%) endothrix and 4 cases (3.63%) of favus. The dermatophytes isolated by in in vitro cultures, included 17 anthropophilic, 9 zoophilic and 3 geophilic species. The other 7 isolates were only characterised as Trichophyton mentagrophytes but remained unidentified at the level of subspecies. The prevalence of Tinea capitis in the rural school students was significantly more than that in the urban students. The infection rate in male was also significantly more than that in female. The results implied that control program with concern to the sources of infections is of great importance. Health education and development of knowledge among school children are recommended to be taken into account. It was resulted that all three sources of dermatophyte infections are involved with the incidence of Tinea capitis in children at South-East of Iran, although the anthropophilic and zoophilic reservoirs are predominant.

Published in Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 2, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.21
Page(s) 205-208
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Tinea capitis, Dermatophyte, South-East, Iran, School

References
[1] BE. Elewski, "Tinea capitis: a current perspective", J Am Acad Dermatol, 42: 1-20, 2000.
[2] BE. Elewski, "Topics in clinical dermatology: cutaneous fungal infections", New York: Igaku-Shoin, 1992.
[3] M. Ghannoum, "Tinea cpitis in Cleveland: Survey of elementary school students", J Am Acad Dermatol, 48:189-93, 2003.
[4] N. Contet-Audonneau, P. Grosjean, L.R. Razankolona, T. Andriantsinjovina, R. Rapelanoro, "Tinea capitis in Madagascar: a survey in a pri-mary school in Antsirabe, Ann Dermatol Venereol. 133(1): 22-5, 2006.
[5] J.W. Rippon, "Medical Mycology, the pathogenic fungi and the pathogenic actinomycetes, Third Edition", P: 154, 1988.
[6] V. Sharma, J. Hall, J. Knapp, S. Sarai, D. Galloway, D. Babel," Scalpcolonization by Trichophyton tonsurans in an urban pediatric clinic", Arch Dermatol, 124:1511-3, 1988.
[7] JV. Williams, PJ. Honig,KJ. McGinley, JJ. Leyden, "Semi-quantitativestudy of Tinea capitis and the asymptomatic carrier state in in-ner-city school children," Pediatrics, 96:265-7, 1995.
[8] DM. Bronson, DR. Desai, S. Barsky, SM. Foley, "An epidemic of infection with Trichophyton tonsurans revealed in a 20 year survey of fungal infections in Chicago", J Am Acad Dermatol, 8:322-30, 1983.
[9] E. Provost, "Tinea capitis in Charleston", SC. JAMA, 242:1765-7, 1979.
[10] JB. Howell, JW. Wilson, MR. Caro, "Tinea capitis caused by Trichophyton tonsurans (sulfureum or crateriforme)" Arch Dermatol, 65:194-205, 1952.
[11] JM. Beare,"Tinea capitis due to Trichophyton sulfureum", Br J Der-matol, 68:193-9, 1956.
[12] DE. Babel, SA. Baughman, "Evaluation of the adult carrier state injuvenile Tinea capitis caused by Trichophyton tonsurans", . J Am Acad Dermatol, 21:1209-12, 1989.
[13] PJ Honig, LR. Smith,"Tinea capitis masquerading asatopic or seborrheic dermatitis", J Pediatr, 94:604-, 1979.
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    Ebrahimzadeh Adel, Hashami Shahri Saeed Mohammad, Fazaeli Asghar. (2014). Tinea Capitis in Primary and Middle School Students in South-East of Iran. Science Journal of Public Health, 2(3), 205-208. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.21

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    ACS Style

    Ebrahimzadeh Adel; Hashami Shahri Saeed Mohammad; Fazaeli Asghar. Tinea Capitis in Primary and Middle School Students in South-East of Iran. Sci. J. Public Health 2014, 2(3), 205-208. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.21

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    AMA Style

    Ebrahimzadeh Adel, Hashami Shahri Saeed Mohammad, Fazaeli Asghar. Tinea Capitis in Primary and Middle School Students in South-East of Iran. Sci J Public Health. 2014;2(3):205-208. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.21

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  • @article{10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.21,
      author = {Ebrahimzadeh Adel and Hashami Shahri Saeed Mohammad and Fazaeli Asghar},
      title = {Tinea Capitis in Primary and Middle School Students in South-East of Iran},
      journal = {Science Journal of Public Health},
      volume = {2},
      number = {3},
      pages = {205-208},
      doi = {10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.21},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.21},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20140203.21},
      abstract = {Tinea capitis is a common infection among school children, still raising public health importance in many countries. There are unpublished reports of head fungal infections, particularly Tinea capitis, in school children of Sistan and Baluchestan province, at South-East of Iran. However, the reports are only based on the clinical evidences and there is no information about the prevalence and the agents of the infection. The present study was designed to determine the prevalence of Tinea capitis based on demographic information as well as laboratory determination of the causative fungal species in primary and middle school students of seven districts in Sistan and Baluchestan in 2011. During this cross-sectional study, 2060 children from urban and rural primary and middle schools were randomly selected and subjected to the survey by informed consents. Their demographic information was recorded in questionnaire and specimens from suspicious students were taken by scraping the scalp and removing hair stubs. Microscopic examination and culture and subculture of the specimens were performed using Sabouraud’s Dextrose Agar (S) and S + Chloramphenicol + Cyclohexamide (SCC) media and slide culture for identification of fungal agents. The surveyed children contained 56.7% female and 43.3% male. A number of 110 students (5.8%) were suspected to have Tinea capitis. Thirty-seven cases of Tinea capitis were confirmed by demonstration of dermatophytes spores or mycelium in direct smears, consisting of 25 (22.73%) ectothrix, 8 (7.27%) endothrix and 4 cases (3.63%) of favus. The dermatophytes isolated by in in vitro cultures, included 17 anthropophilic, 9 zoophilic and 3 geophilic species. The other 7 isolates were only characterised as Trichophyton mentagrophytes but remained unidentified at the level of subspecies. The prevalence of Tinea capitis in the rural school students was significantly more than that in the urban students. The infection rate in male was also significantly more than that in female.  The results implied that control program with concern to the sources of infections is of great importance. Health education and development of knowledge among school children are recommended to be taken into account. It was resulted that all three sources of dermatophyte infections are involved with the incidence of Tinea capitis in children at South-East of Iran, although the anthropophilic and zoophilic reservoirs are predominant.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Tinea Capitis in Primary and Middle School Students in South-East of Iran
    AU  - Ebrahimzadeh Adel
    AU  - Hashami Shahri Saeed Mohammad
    AU  - Fazaeli Asghar
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.21
    DO  - 10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.21
    T2  - Science Journal of Public Health
    JF  - Science Journal of Public Health
    JO  - Science Journal of Public Health
    SP  - 205
    EP  - 208
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7950
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.21
    AB  - Tinea capitis is a common infection among school children, still raising public health importance in many countries. There are unpublished reports of head fungal infections, particularly Tinea capitis, in school children of Sistan and Baluchestan province, at South-East of Iran. However, the reports are only based on the clinical evidences and there is no information about the prevalence and the agents of the infection. The present study was designed to determine the prevalence of Tinea capitis based on demographic information as well as laboratory determination of the causative fungal species in primary and middle school students of seven districts in Sistan and Baluchestan in 2011. During this cross-sectional study, 2060 children from urban and rural primary and middle schools were randomly selected and subjected to the survey by informed consents. Their demographic information was recorded in questionnaire and specimens from suspicious students were taken by scraping the scalp and removing hair stubs. Microscopic examination and culture and subculture of the specimens were performed using Sabouraud’s Dextrose Agar (S) and S + Chloramphenicol + Cyclohexamide (SCC) media and slide culture for identification of fungal agents. The surveyed children contained 56.7% female and 43.3% male. A number of 110 students (5.8%) were suspected to have Tinea capitis. Thirty-seven cases of Tinea capitis were confirmed by demonstration of dermatophytes spores or mycelium in direct smears, consisting of 25 (22.73%) ectothrix, 8 (7.27%) endothrix and 4 cases (3.63%) of favus. The dermatophytes isolated by in in vitro cultures, included 17 anthropophilic, 9 zoophilic and 3 geophilic species. The other 7 isolates were only characterised as Trichophyton mentagrophytes but remained unidentified at the level of subspecies. The prevalence of Tinea capitis in the rural school students was significantly more than that in the urban students. The infection rate in male was also significantly more than that in female.  The results implied that control program with concern to the sources of infections is of great importance. Health education and development of knowledge among school children are recommended to be taken into account. It was resulted that all three sources of dermatophyte infections are involved with the incidence of Tinea capitis in children at South-East of Iran, although the anthropophilic and zoophilic reservoirs are predominant.
    VL  - 2
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Medical School, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran

  • Zahedan Research Center for Infectious Diseases & Tropical Medicine, Zahedan, Iran

  • Zahedan Research Center for Infectious Diseases & Tropical Medicine, Zahedan, Iran

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