{"id":125670,"date":"2026-09-22T13:19:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=125670"},"modified":"2026-09-22T13:19:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:49:39","slug":"dermatophytes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/dermatophytes\/","title":{"rendered":"Dermatophytes"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Dermatophytes Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For a long time, fungal infections have meant itchy skin, discoloured nails and sometimes hair loss, a group of symptoms collectively called dermatophytosis, and are caused by a group of fungi called dermatophytes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Dermatophytes<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are a <\/span><b>group of fungi <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that <\/span><b>live off keratin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a <\/span><b>substance in your hair, nails <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the <\/span><b>outer layer of your skin.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They <\/span><b>don\u2019t infect living tissue.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They can<\/span><b> cause skin lesions in humans and animals.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Infections <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">caused by dermatophytes are called <\/span><b>dermatophytosis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fungi <\/span><b>use keratin as a carbon source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>colonise keratinised tissue, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">such as <\/span><b>hair, skin or nails.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Major genera of dermatophytes include Trichophyton, Microsporum and Epidermophyton.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dermatophytes are<\/span><b> highly contagious.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some dermatophytes are <\/span><b>spread directly from one person to another (anthropophilic organisms).\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Others live in<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and are <\/span><b>transmitted to humans from soil (geophilic organisms),<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and still <\/span><b>others spread to humans from animal hosts (zoophilic organisms).\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Transmission of dermatophytes also can <\/span><b>occur indirectly from fomites<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (e.g., upholstery, hairbrushes, hats).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anthropophilic organisms are<\/span><b> responsible for most fungal skin infections.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Why do dermatophytes cause so many different types of disease?\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All dermatophytes<\/span><b> infect host surfaces containing keratin,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> including skin, hair, and nails.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As such, the <\/span><b>same infecting organism <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">could <\/span><b>cause disease in the foot, fingernail, body, or head.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Both climate and lifestyle contribute<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the prevalence of dermatophyte infections.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Tropical climates and overcrowding predispose populations <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to dermatophyte infections.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Increased urbanization<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including the<\/span><b> use of occlusive footwear, community showers, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and participation in sports, has been linked to higher prevalence of Tinea pedis and onychomycosis (nail infections).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is very <\/span><b>rare for a dermatophyte<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to <\/span><b>cause an invasive or disseminated infection,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> although cases in immunocompromised patients have been reported.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disease severity correlates with the ecological niche of the infecting dermatophyte. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/ccidist-ws\/th\/th_delhi\/issues\/205470\/OPS\/GV7GIET86.1+GQGGIF0HL.1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>TH<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dermatophytes are a group of fungi that live off keratin, a substance in your hair, nails and the outer layer of your skin. Read more about Dermatophytes, Meaning, Example, Treatment, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":125696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10417],"class_list":["post-125670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-dermatophytes","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125670"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125691,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125670\/revisions\/125691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}