Tinea capitis in newborns: Report of a case and review of the literature with a focus on treatment modalities

Abstract

Tinea capitis is a common disease in children but rare in newborns younger than 1 month of age. Only 29 cases of tinea capitis in newborns have been described in indexed literature from 1990 until now. While antifungal agents can be used topically and systemically, systemic antifungal therapy is generally accepted as the treatment of choice for tinea capitis due to limited penetration of topical agents into the hair follicle. However, there is a lack of data on the use of systemic antifungal agents in newborns, and there are reports of successful treatment of tinea capitis in newborns using only topical therapy. In this paper, we present a case of tinea capitis in a 29-day-old female baby and review the previous 29 reported cases.