Changing in the Epidemiology of Tinea Capitis among School Children in Egypt

BACKGROUND: Tinea capitis remains a prevalent health problem among school-aged children. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of tinea capitis among primary school students, in Fayoum, Egypt with identification of etiological agents in both public and private primary schools. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in twelve primary schools. The students were selected from different grades with a total number of 12,128 students. Hair and scalp were clinically examined for any lesions that may suspect tinea capitis and mycological samples were collected for direct microscopy and culture. RESULTS: The prevalence of tinea capitis in the study group was 0.4% and higher in public than private schools (73.5% versus 26.5% respectively). Boys were more affected than girls with boy to girls' ratio 5:1. Intrafamily history of infection was present in 40.8% of tested group while 51% showed low social standard profile. Mycological culture revealed that Microsporum canis was the predominant isolated organism followed by M. audouinii (52% and 36% respectively). CONCLUSION: M. canis is replacing Trichophyton violaceum as an etiology for tinea capitis in Egypt with lower prevalence rate than reported previously.

Knowledge and Attitude towards Smoking among Fayoum University Students

Smoking is a behavioral cause of premature morbidity and mortality, resulting in approximately four million persons dying of smoking-related diseases annually worldwide. This study aims to investigate the extent of smoking habit, knowledge toward smoking among Fayoum University students. A cross sectional analytical study was conducted in Fayoum University during the academic year 2010. A total of 804 students were selected by using randomized multi-stage sampling using self-administered questionnaire for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. The respondents age ranged from 18 to 26 years 20.36 +/- [1.21] years. The males were 51% [n=410] and females were 49% [n=394]. The prevalence of smoking among students was 13.4%. a large percentage of the smokers 82.4% used cigarettes while 8.3% smoked water pipe. Regarding knowledge about smoking related diseases, 97.3% of the students knew that smoking causes diseases; but only 5.6% of the sample had good/and satisfactory knowledge score about the causal role of tobacco in the development of specific diseases, and 66.7% of smoker students want to quit with a higher intention of for older group. In conclusion, smoking is prevalent among the university students and their knowledge about the harmful effects of smoking is generally superficial. Definite counseling programs are greatly needed to help students quit smoking