The current Indian epidemic of superficial dermatophytosis due to Trichophyton mentagrophytes —A molecular study

The disease burden of chronic-relapsing and therapy-refractory superficial dermatophytosis dramatically increased in India within the past 5-6 years. In order to evaluate the prevalence of this trend, 201 skin scrapings were collected from patients from all parts of India and were tested for dermatophytes using both fungal culture and a PCR-ELISA directly performed with native skin scrapings. Fungal culture material was identified by genomic Sanger sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and the translation elongation factor (TEF)-1α gene. In total, 149 (74.13%) out of the 201 samples showed a dermatophyte-positive culture result. Out of this, 138 (92.62%) samples were identified as Trichophyton (T.) mentagrophytes and 11 (7.38%) as Trichophyton rubrum. The PCR-ELISA revealed similar results: 162 out of 201 (80.56%) samples were dermatophyte-positive showing 151 (93.21%) T mentagrophytes- and 11 (6.79%) T rubrum-positive samples. In this study, we show for the first time a dramatic Indian-wide switch from T rubrum to T mentagrophytes. Additionally, sequencing revealed a solely occurring T mentagrophytes "Indian ITS genotype" that might be disseminated Indian-wide due to the widespread abuse of topical clobetasol and other steroid molecules mixed with antifungal and antibacterial agents.