Familial Occurrence of Trichophyton violaceum Infection Including a Case of Onychomycosis

Abstract

Two cases of Trichophyton violaceum infection in a family, a 5-year-old girl with tinea corporis and black-dot ringworm, and her 39-year-old mother with tinea unguium were reported. The affected nail showed an uneven and finely wrinkled surface with slight hyperkeratosis, in accordance with reported characteristics of onychomycosis due to T. violaceum.
T. violaceum was also isolated from the asymptomatic scalps of two siblings of case 1 using the tooth-brush method.
The presence of T. violaceum on the skin surface of family members without lesions and the sporadic occurrence of plural patients in a family was thought to be characteristic of an extremely anthropophilic dermatophyte like T. violaceum.