Frequency of Superficial Fungal Infections in Military Staff of the Taibad Border Region

Introduction. Because of the special life style, the Military staffs are at high risk of fungal infections. Frequency of fungal infections in military staffs of different areas may be a suitable marker to evaluate and compare the health status of communities. The main purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of superficial cutaneous fungal infections among military staffs of Taibad, a border city between Iran and Afghanistan, and comparison of the results with that of the other sites, in order to evaluate the risks threatening the studied population. Materials and Methods. The military staffs of Taibad region were examined two times (winter and summer, 2006) for superficial cutaneous fungal infections and samples were obtained from their suspected superficial lesions. Direct microscopic examination and culture of the samples were done using common mycological methods clinical and laboratory findings were analyzed along with a questionnaire extracted personal information. Results. Frequency of fungal infections in this study was 6.6%. At the first time (winter), 14% of the examined individuals had suspected fungal lesions from which 21.4% had laboratory confirmed fungal diseases. At the second time (summer), from 10.7% of the military staff with lesions suspected to fungal diseases, 33.3% had mycological confirmed fungal infections. Pityrosporosis and tinea versicolor with 2 and 1 percent respectively in winter, and t.versicolor with 3.6% in summer were the only found fungal diseases in the studied population and there was not find any cases of the other superficial or cutaneous fungal infections. Discussion. Prevalence of superficial fungal diseases in military staff in Taibad region was less than expection and the results showed no significant differences with studies in other regions of the country like Bosheher, Kordestan, Gilan, and Kermanshah. Although, studies implicating all groups of the population may give different results.