Tinea Capitis - Symptoms

Symptoms

It may appear as thickened, scaly, and sometimes boggy swellings, or as expanding raised red rings (ringworm). Common symptoms are severe itching of the scalp, dandruff, and bald patches where the fungus has rooted itself in the skin. It often presents identically to dandruff or seborrheic dermatitis. The highest incidence in the United States of America is in African American boys of school age.

There are three type of tinea capitis, microsporosis, trichophytosis, and favus; these are based on the causative microorganism, and the nature of the symptoms. In microsporosis, the lesion is a small red papule around a hair shaft that later becomes scaly; eventually the hairs break off 1–3 mm above the scalp. This disease used to be caused primarily by Microsporum audouinii, but in Europe, M. canis is more frequently the causative fungus. The source of this fungus is typically sick cats and kittens; it may be spread through person to person contact, or by sharing contaminated brushes and combs. In the United States, Trichophytosis is usually caused by Trichophyton tonsurans, while T. violaceum is more common in Eastern Europe, Africa, and India. This fungus causes dry, non-inflammatory patches that tend to be angular in shape. When the hairs break off at the opening of the follicle, black dots remain. Favus is caused by T. schoenlenii, and is endemic in South Africa and the Middle East. It is characterized by a number of yellowish, circular, cup-shaped crusts (scutula) grouped in patches like a piece of honeycomb, each about the size of a split pea, with a hair projecting in the center. These increase in size and become crusted over, so that the characteristic lesion can only be seen around the edge of the scab.