Abstract

BACKGROUND: Dermatophytosis is usually caused by a contact of the skin with the infective particles in the environment.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the extent and severity of environmental contamination by dermatophytes.

METHOD: In addition to physical examination on the residents of 46 families in a rural town in Kyungpook Province, clinical material and house dust samples were cultivated for dermatophytes.

RESULTS: Among 114 persons from the 46 families, dermatophytosis was detected in 33 persons (28.9%). The most frequent clinical type was tinea pedis. Trichophyton rubrum and T. mentagrophytes were etiologic agents. In 22 families (47.8%), T. rubrum (16 families, 34.8%) and T. mentagrophytes (6 families, 13.0%) were isolated from the skin lesions. The remaining 24 families (52.2%) were free from dermatophytosis. T. rubrum was detected in the house dust samples from 40 (86.9%) of the 46 families, with a density of 34.0 colonies/g, the highest among isolates.; T. mentagrophytes, from 32 (69.6%); Microsporum canis, from 1 (0.2%); 3 (6.5%) were without any dermatophytes. T. rubrum was isolated from the house dust of 15 (93.7%) out of 16 families having tinea patients infected with the same fungus, and T. mentagrophytes in 5 (83.3%) out of 6. Each case was frequently detected together with other dermatophytes. T. mentagrophytes subtypes were isolated from house dust singly in 19 (41.3%), and in twos and threes in 13 (28.3%) of the 46 families. Even in the families of the patient(s) with the fungus, the subtypes were not always identical with those from house dust. In a mating study with a total of 210 strains of T. mentagrophytes, 130 out of 136 (including 6 indeterminate) strains of granulosum-asteroides form turned out to be Arthroderma vanbreuseghemii " - ". But all the 70 strains of the powdery, persicolor and downy forms that showed strong sexual stimulation by tester strains, were "+". 

CONCLUSION: House dust was extensively and markedly contaminated by dermatophytes in a rural town. Further study is needed to evaluate the distribution of mating types of the members of T. mentagrophytes complex in a clinical setting.

Keywords

Dermatophytes House dust Mating type

KJMM 1996 December;1(1):71-82(12). Epub 2016 February 25
Copyright © 1996 by Korean Journal of Medical Mycology

Language

Korean/English

Author

Kyung Jae Chung; Department of Dermatology, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Taegu, Korea
Jae Bok Jun; Department of Dermatology, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Taegu, Korea

Corresponding

Jae Bok Jun, Department of Dermatology, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Taegu, Korea.

Publication history

Acknowledgements

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Kyung Jae Chung

Department of Dermatology, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Taegu, Korea

Jae Bok Jun

Department of Dermatology, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Taegu, Korea

Since epub date 2016 February 25