Epidemiology of Patients with Superficial Fungal Diseases and Their Family Members in Korea

Ro, Byung In; Yang, Kyung Mee

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Superficial fungal disease is one of the most common human infectious diseases. A recent clinical survey reported that more than half of patients with superficial fungal diseases might be infected at home.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation of the fungal infection between the patients and their family members.
METHODS
Dermatologists of 71 general hospitals were involved and evaluated 7,323 patients and 1,037 their family members who were confirmed microscopically to have superficial fungal diseases.
RESULTS
According to the survey results, 46.1% of the patients answered they might have been infected at home and 33.6% of the patients remembered there were other fungus-infected patients among their family members at the same time. The isolated organisms were Trichophyton rubrum (1686 cases, 80.9%), Trichophyton mentagrophytes (269 cases, 12.9%), Candida albicans (112 cases, 5.4%), Microsporum canis (12 cases, 0.6%), Trichophyton tonsurans (3 cases, 0.1%), Epidermophyton floccosum (2 cases, 0.1%). On the basis of the fungus culture, it was proven that 85.4% of the patients and their family members had the same kind of microorganism.
CONCLUSION
As a result, we could conclude that there is a high possibility of transmitting the fungal infection from one family member to another.