Abstract
The spread of Trichophyton tonsurans infection among high school students and university undergraduates who practice Judo is an emerging problem in Japan and other countries. However, the extent of infection among Judo practitioners in junior high school in Japan is unknown. We conducted an epidemiological study of T. tonsurans infection among students who participated in the national junior high school Judo tournament in 2005. Of the 1,039 tournament participants invited to undergo screening, 496 (218 boys and 278 girls) consented, and 45 participants (9.1%) were found to be positive by hairbrush culture. We found the following to be relative risk factors for T. tonsurans infection: 1) male gender, 2) frequent judo practice in groups at either a high school or a dojo, 3) presence of tinea corporis in practice partners, 4) history of tinea corporis, 5) classification in lower-weight categories. 45 culture positive subjects were offered treatment and re-examined by hairbrush culture 3 months later. All twelve of them had negative cultures after miconazole shampoo treatment. A half of 12 subjects who had systemic antifungal therapy with itraconazole had positive culture. These observations suggest that T. tonsurans infection is rapidly spreading among junior high school Judo players in Japan. We speculate that the outbreak is caused, at least in part, by ignorance of the disease among Judo students, coaches and officials due to the high incidence of carriers and the mild or asymptomatic form of disease seen in infected individuals. Appropriate measures should be taken immediately to prevent more severe outbreak of this disease.
