Isolation And Identification Of Dermatophytes Among Siddi Community Residing In North Karnataka Region And Molecular Characterization Of Exotic Rare Fungi Among Them

Abstract

Background: Fungal infection is very common in developing countries due to the life style and illness like diabetes, HIV infection and use of immunosuppressive drugs. Dermatophytosis is a superficial fungal infection caused by keratinophilic fungi belonging to three genera, Trichophyton, Microsporum and Epidermophyton which affects hair, skin and nail. Distribution of the species of dermatophytes varies depending upon the geographic location, ecology and human activities. We have several dermatophyte speciation studies from Indian subcontinent, those were carried out among Indian ethnic group. Siddis/Siddhis are Southeast African descendants that were brought to India as slaves during 16th and 19th centuries by the Portuguese. This study was conducted to determine the clinical profile, Antifungal Susceptibility, species distribution, genotype of predominant and rare dermatophyte isolates in this conserved Siddi community residing in southern part of India.