Tinea capitis nas crianças-da-rua na cidade de Maputo

Abstract

Tinea capitis, or scalp tinea, is an infection of the hair and keratinized tissue of the scalp, produced by specialized fungi, the dermatophytes (Shung and Bennet 1992). In this work, street children from the number 1 urban district of Maputo city were observed, with a view to achieving the proposed objectives. The reason for the study lies in the rarity of research on tinea capitis in Maputo since 1975, as well as the lack of studies in this field, on street children in particular. Objectives: Identification of causal agents and predisposing factors of tinea capitis in street children in Maputo city. Methodology: In this work, samples were taken from the scalp of 305 street children and 98 adults who lived with them. Harvests were carried out with swab and seeded on «mycobiotic agar» and «sabouraud dextrose agar -DIFCO» medium. They were incubated between 28 and 30°C and after colony development, the steps usually necessary for their identification were followed. 305 samples from children and 95 from adults were cultured. All samples from adults were negative for dermatophytes. The subsequent study focused solely on the 305 children. Three species of dermatophytes were isolated, M. audouinii, T. violaceum and T. tonsurans. The highest percentage of isolations was obtained in the age group from 6 to 15 years, with M.audoinii being the most prevalent with 21 isolations. T. violaceum followed with 6 isolations and T. tonsurans with 2 isolations. 12 carriers were detected. The prevalence of different etiological agents and cases of confirmed ringworm were, respectively: M. audouinii 6.9% (21/305); 4.6% (14/305) T. violaceum 2.0% (6/305); 0.7% (2/305) T. tonsurans 0.7% (2/305); 0.3% (1/305) Conclusions: - M. audoinii remains the predominant causal agent of tinea capitis. - There is a high number of carriers in the sample. The prevalence of tinea capitis remains within the typically typical age groups for this type of infection. (TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)