2 OUTBREAKS OF MICROSPORUM CANIS RINGWORM IN ISRAEL

An imported Persian cat and a young pooddle were the source of transmission for two outbreaks of ringworms. In the first outbreak 12 subjects were infected, in the second one six individuals became infected. The largest number of lesions, exceeding 150, were found in two girls, involved in the first outbreak. Scalp involvement was detected in 3 out of the 6 children in the first outbreak and in one out of the 5 children from the second one. The fungal nature of the infections was demonstrated by the presence of hyphae in KOH treated scrapings and by the fluorescing hairs found, both in the children as well as in the respective animals. M. canis was cultured from the human and animal lesions. Positive results were obtained with the isolated strains in white mouse and guinea pig inoculation. Microsporum canis is not a common dermatophyte in Israel. Human infections by this fungus have been sporadically reported and only in the last years (Alteras & Lehrer (1), Dvoretzky et al. (6). According to Kuttin & Beemer (10), animal infections by this organism in Israel have been found in cats and dogs. When transmission to humans occurs, the cat is usually incriminated as the main source of infection. It is known that pet Angora and Persian cats carry the disease just as well as stray cats. The sites of predilection for M. canis invasion in cats are the base of the years, the nose, the neck, hind and fore limbs, body and tail. Nail involvement may also be observed, though sporadically. Large M. canis outbreaks in humans have not been very frequently reported, only small outbreaks involving 3-5 members of a family, who contracted this infection from the same source: cats or dogs: Doring & Jung (5), Hodges & Rao (8), Bjornberg & Gip (8), Simic & Prisic (12), Grunder & Koehler (7), Bojanowski (3). Since such cases by M. canis have been infrequently published in Israel, we thought it of interest to present a recent large and a small familial outbreak due to this fungus. © 1979 Kluwer Academic Publishers.