Recent Isolations of Microsporum Distortum in New Zealand

The dermatophyte Microsporwn distortum was described in 1954 (1) from 12 strains isolated in the province of Otago, New Zealand. It has since been isolated in the United States from animals by Kaplan and his colleagues (2) in 1956, and more recently from a human infection by Brooks and her associates (3). The recovery of these strains in a country so much larger and more populous than New Zealand is most interesting, and has prompted the present report of the infections due to M. distortum which have occurred in and around Dunedin, New Zealand since January 1954. Certain clinical features of the original twelve cases, not previously reported, are also included.