Epidemiological studies on Dermatophytosis in human patients in Himachal Pradesh, India

Dermatophytes are among the common fungal agents implicated in superficial skin infections worldwide. They include species of Trichophyton, Microsporum and Epidermophyton. In hot and humid climates of tropical and subtropical regions, the incidence of these pathogens is higher. We present in this article, the epidemiological data regarding the prevalence of different dermatophyte species involved in superficial mycoses in human patients in the state of Himachal Pradesh (India) and different clinical conditions, age and sex of the patients. A total of 202 samples in the form of skin and nail scrapings, hair follicles were collected from different ringworm/tinea conditions which included: Tinea corporis, T. capitis, T. cruris, T. pedis, T. unguium, T. faciei, T. manuum and T. gladiatorum. On culturing, 74 samples (36.6%) were found positive for dermatophyte spp. Trichophyton spp. was the predominant one (98.65% cases) followed by Microsporum gypseum (1.35% cases). However, we did not recover any Epidermophyton spp. Among the Trichophyton spp., T. mentegrophyte was the predominant spp. (63.5%) followed by T. rubrum (35.1%). The male to female ratio of the positive cases was recorded as 63:11. The most effected age group was 21-50 years (64.9%) followed by 1-20 years (28.4%) and above 50 years (6.8%).