SPONTANEOUS CURE OF TINEA CAPITIS DUE TO MICROSPORON AUDOUINI

Abstract

It has been stated repeatedly in the past that tinea capitis due to Microsporum audouini resolves itself spontaneously at the age of puberty. So far as is known, only Livingood and Pillsbury¹ have referred to the possibility of spontaneous cure before puberty. In the clinic patients in Detroit I had repeatedly observed what seemed to be prepubertal spontaneous cures. Prepubertal children with tinea capitis due to M. audouini and not seen for one or two years would return free of infection with a story that no treatment had been used. It was felt that these observations might be significant, and a method was at hand for gathering evidence to prove that spontaneous cure did occur in patients with tinea capitis before the age of puberty. A group was available for investigation from the survey conducted by Carrick in the Detroit Public Schools in 1945.² Most of these children