2005 Volume 46 Issue 2 Pages 99-103
In June 2004, information was gathered on Trichophyton tonsurans infections, both past and current, in the Hokuriku and Kinki regions of central-western Honshu island, Japan, by questionnaires sent to 185 dermatologists who were members of the local medical mycologist associations Hokuriku Shinkin Kondan-kai and Kansai Shinkin Kondan-kai. Of the 111 (59.4%) who returned the completed questionnaire, 32 (28.8%) had seen patients infected with T. tonsurans including suspicious cases. The earliest recorded cases were linked to an endemic that occurred in 1994 or 1995 among a high school wrestling team in Toyama. The majority of the dermatologists saw their first case between 2001 and 2003. When the patients were grouped according to contact sports, judo players formed the largest group, followed by wrestlers. When grouped according to age, high school students formed the largest group, but the endemic had also expanded among junior high school students and adults, and there was one nursery school child who was a member of a judo club. Seventy-four of the dermatologists were sent sterilized hairbrushes to collect samples from patients suspected as having tinea capitis during July and September 2004. Trichophyton tonsurans was detected in samples from 6 patients.
To investigate the molecular epidemiology, 71 of the clinical strains of T. tonsurans isolated from the Hokuriku and Kinki regions were analyzed using restriction fragment length polymorphisms of the nontranscribed spacer regions of ribosomal RNA genes. With the restriction enzyme Mva I, two molecular types were detected among the strains, indicating that the causative agents of the endemic were derived from different origins.
