Epidemiology and ecology of dermatophytosis in Fortaleza city: Trichophyton tonsurans as an important emergent pathogen of Tinea capitis

Dermatophytosis is the most common skin infectious disturbance in the world. In this research 2.297 patients were evaluated with suspected clinical lesions of dermatophytosis. It was observed that, 534 (23.2%) patients tested positive for dermatophytes. T. rubrum was the most prevalent specie (49.6%; p £ 0.05), followed by T. tonsurans (34.4%), M. canis (7%) and T. mentagrophytes (6.2%). When the species isolated was correlated with the respective anatomical localization, it was observed that T. tonsurans was the most frequent isolated in scalp lesions (73,9%; p £ 0.01). On the other hand, T. rubrum was the main specie involved in body lesions (72.8%; p £ 0.05). Therefore, in scalp infections it was observed that, there was an absolute prevalence of T. tonsurans. This evidence is different from the statistical data collected in the southeast and south of Brazil, as well as from other areas of the world, which still show M. canis as the most frequent microorganism isolated in Tinea capiti.