Infectivity and Family Incidence of Black-Dot Tinea Capitis

Abstract

The infectivity and family incidence of tinea capitis trichophytica have not been clearly established. Children living in a closed institution were experimentally infected with microsporum by Kligman.¹Such a procedure does not reproduce the natural epidemiological conditions, nor would it be feasible in the case of trichophyton infections, owing to the need for therapeutic x-ray epilation. A statistical approach seems the only means of clarifying many of the epidemiological problems involved. The records of more than 6,000 cases seen in this department yielded valuable epidemiological information,²but the individual case files did not report the absence as well as the presence of the infection in the rest of the family. Subsequently a special sheet including this information was added to each new patient's file, giving results of both the clinical and microscopical examination of all other family members. This has made