The Clinical Recognition of Tinea Capitis From Trichophyton tonsurans

A change in the preponderant etiologic agent of tinea capitis in the United States has been occurring during the last 20 to 30 years. Before the 1950s, theMicrosporumsp,M audouiniiandM canis, were the organisms most commonly isolated in patients with tinea capitis. In the 1950s,Trichophyton tonsuranswas introduced into the southern and southwestern states1,2from Puerto Rico and Mexico, where epidemics of tinea capitis from this organism previously had occurred. In the early 1960s, the problem of scalp infections caused byT tonsuransalso was reported in urban areas in the Midwest and East.3In the 1970s, as Prevost reports (p 1765),T tonsuransis now the preponderant organism causing tinea capitis in Charleston, SC, a change also reported in other locations.4,5 The emergence ofT tonsuransas the preponderant cause of tinea capitis is important, for scalp infections caused by this