Abstract

Ameneh Yazdanfar

Regarding the importance of tinea capitis as a world wide health problem, evaluation of this problem needs territorial epidemiologic studies. This disease is commonest in boys less than 15 years old, therefore this study was performed to determine the prevalence and aetiologic agents of tinea capitis among school children in Hamedan. We examined1800 cases of children from Hamedan primary schools. The cases were divided in three areas of according with economical, social and cultural level in: poor, medium and rich. In 44 cases suspected to have tinea capitis with were realized collection from lesion for mycological diagnosis. The causative agents were identfied macroscopically and microscopically after the clinical samples were subjected to potassium hydroxide examination and culture isolation. In 20 of these cases, the mycological exams demonstrate direct exam positive and 9 cases of them were culture positive. As a result, The incidence rate of tinea capitis among these cases were 1.11%, the highest rate (1.82%) in the poor area, the lowest rate (0.17%) in the rich area. The highest incidence rate of mycologically positive cases were in 7 year old children (25%). In the direct exam positive cases, 55% had Endothrix type and in the cultures, 44.45% was Trichophyton verrucosum, the most frequent isolate. Tinea capitis had the highest incidence rate in the poor areas. The incidence of tinea capitis in crowded families >5 is more than uncrowded families <5. The commonest type of lesion was gray patch (55%). Tinea capitis is still a public health problem in the world and any scalp lesion with itching and scaling should be considered as tinea capitis unless the opposite be proved through direct microscopy or culture tests.