Prevalence of white and black Piedra in the students of Sari guidance schools: A short communication report

Term Piedra, which means stone in Spanish is used to describe an asymptomatic fungal infection of the hair shaft.Two different varieties of piedra are generally distinguished; white piedra and black piedra. In regard to the lack ofany report in Iran and also with consideration to tropical weather and high humidity of northern area of Iran, theauthors decided to find the prevalence of this infection among the students of guidance schools through a survey.Methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional study that was conducted among guidance school students of Saricity-Iran in 2013. Sampling was performed through the taking samples from the different clusters of students. In thebeginning check list contain demographic data and several questions related to hygiene and public health situationdistributed among students. Then scalp hair and axillary part of subjects were evaluated by examiners. Directexamination was done via slides that were prepared by KOH 20% to observe hyphe or any fungi components. Afterthat, all samples were cultured in Sabouraud’s dextrose agar (Merck,Germany) containing cloramphenicol (Merck,Germany) and incubated at 27 degrees of centigrade for four weeks. The samples were seen by medical mycologistevery day. Data was analyzed via descriptive tests through the SPSS 18.0. P.value ≤0.05 was determined assignificant.Results: Subjects were 1273 (44.3%) male and 1600 (55.7%) female. From the all examined students only 271(9.43%) students sampled which 224 (82.5%) were female and 47 (17.5%) were male. Out of 271 sampled studentsno case of piedra was identified. Beside the piedra no other dermatophite or pathologic fungi were observed bydirect examinations.Conclusion: prevalence of trichomycosis nodularis in the studied area was zero. It sounds very likely that thepresence of health centers in the studied areas of sari, also routine visit of the students by schools nurses andinhabitation in downtown were the reasons for lack of infection by piedra.

Keywords:

Prevalence , Piedra , Students