الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 141 |  |  |
| | | from | 141 | | |
Abstract
Some mycological and ecological aspects of tinea pedis have been s1iudied through the medium of 716 secondary and preparatory boy and girl school students in addition to 93 of individuals representing 20 families all from the 4 districts of Alexandria city. 33.8 of the school stud ents and 48.4 of the families members showed. signs and symptoms of feet affections. Sa:mples for laboratory mycological work were taken from 479 of school students and from 93. of the families members, and the results were as follows : . 1- By the direct microscopic examination of the specimens using 10 KOR, the positive results were more than the positive results yielded by culture .JIlethods. The proportion between the 2 positive results were 5 : 2, in favour of the microscopic ~amination. These find ings were related to the presence of other fungi and moulds which might have been suppressed by c7clohexi-. mide which was added to the media to grow dermatophytes only. 2- The dermatophyte isolation rate was 19.6 from the .feet of the” school students and 26.8 from the feet of adult members of the families. Concerning the species of derm.atophytes and their prevalence as \ I their isolation rates were as follows : causative agents of tinea pedis among school students !. mentap;rophytes interdigi tale 61. 7 !. v erruco sum 10.6 T. rubrum E. f 10 cco sum T. violaceum mentagrophytes granulare T. equinum. M. cani s . 9.6 6..3 5..3 4..3 1.0 Among the families’ members, the prevalence of dermatophytes ~as’ as follows : !. mentagrophytes interdigitale 50 T. mentagrophytes granulare 25 !. v erruco sum 20 T. violaceum . The investigation showed that individual and 5 distribution of its causal dermatophytes. geographic factors may influence tinea pedis and the For inst ance, the district was shown to influence the in:fect~ ion rate with tinea pedis in school students though this influence was not evident in families. This could be attributed to the presence of crowded famous local bathing sea-shores and the enthusiasm of the . school students for swimming in their local sea-shores and using their communal shower, facilities where they may contract the infection. There was a significant difference in the infection rate among school students in the East and that of the school students in the Amereya ( 25.2 and 15.0, respectively). There was a slight difference between the infection rate of male and female school students as well as - of the secondary and preparatory school students but the diff erence did not reach the statistical signific ance at 5 level. . . Habits and sports have been shown to influence the infection rate among school students. The highest inf ection rate have been shown to be among students used( to practice heavy sports ( 30.6 ) but the swimmers’ infection rate was lower ( 20 ), and this was attrib uted to the swimming in the sea which is naturally prevalent in a city like Alexandria where the situation is diff erent from that of the swimming pools. The inf ection rate among students who do not practi~e sports was only 17.0. Foot hygiene has no influence on the dermatophytes/ isolati.on rate but has some influence on the saprophyte and c. albicans isola-tion rates. Sharing of clothes, socks or beds have nonsigIfificant influence on timea pedis. It has been noticed that dermatophytes were isolated from symptomatic students at a rate of 27.7 and from the asymptomatic at a rate of 11.4. Dermatophytes have been also isolated from students and members o.f the families who have recei~ed previous specific and/or non-specific treatments at a .rate of 22.5 and ?t, resp ectively iDtlicating that these previous treatments were either inefficient or incomplete to 3 get rid of the causative agents. . EleveD. families - out of twenty had the inf ection in at least one individual ( 55 of the representat i ve families).. In five of the infected families, the causative dermatophyte was shared by more than one member within the family suggesting a cross infection. The investigation have shown that there was a trend to a high infection rate among children if the conditions would favour the infectior:. It was ~videJlt also that every member in the family may also have his own source of infection without his family sphere accordiDg to his habits and activit ies. It has been also noticed that !. violaceum was confined to preparatory school children and the children within the surveyed families because it is the endemic dermatophyte causing mainly tinea capitis which is a known infection in children before puberty. Q. albicans has been isolated from a considerable number of patients with signs and symptoms mimicing tinea pedis. Such cases may need treat . ment on another basis to avoid chronici ty. Di st:i,xlction of the causal agents by labora”!i ory work has proven to be important from both the therapeutic and epidemiological point of view. ”..~