Tinea Pedis: An Opportunistic Infection of The Skin

Nishimoto, Katsutaro

Abstract

In Japan, the average incidence of tinea pedis among dermatology out-patients is around 10%. Obviously this does not reflect the true invasion of dermatophytes on human skin. Several attempts to elucidate the incidence of tinea pedis among the population revealed nearly 40% of randomly chosen patients at dermatology clinics suffered from tinea pedis with an increasing incidence by age group. Furthermore, results obtained from regular medical checks of healthy adults at Nagasaki Municipal Hospital revealed more than 30% of the recruits had only a slight scaling of mild hyperkeratosis which could not be differentiated clinically from other pathological or even age-related changes. Nearly two-thirds of these tinea pedis lesions are left untreated, or even unnoticed as a disease. Several experiments to prove the presence of dermatophytes from healthy-looking skin revealed the possibility of the presence of subclinical lesions or carriers of dermatophytes accumulating around these tinea pedis patients. Uncontrolled tinea pedis lesions are a major cause of tinea unguium, which is expensive and time-consuming to cure especiallyin the aged. There are no standardized treatment modalities for tinea pedis patients focusing on the complete cure. But the difficulties to eradicate the pathogens from their host are common among opportunistic infections. Also the dissociation of the number of patients and the population having the pathogens without apparent lesions, i.e. healthy carrier, is a characteristic of opportunistic infection. Undetected tinea pedis patients are problematic since they are source of infection for others. Discovering and treating the hidden patients is becoming a public health problem, as well as a private hazard. Prevalence of pathogens in the host tissue and low mobility rate are a feature of opportunistic infections. The control methods for tinea pedis as an opportunistic infection should also be taken under consideration.