Virulence Factors and Antifungal Resistance in Dermatophytes Associated with Dandruff among University Students and a Tertiary Institution in Nigeria

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Skin is the largest organ of the body, its infection has an important influence on the quality of life and psychology (Hall, 2006; Hay et al., 2014). Skin diseases could be either infectious or non-infectious. The causative agents are mainly fungi while the non-infectious one could be inflammatory dermatoses. Dermatomycoses are infections of the skin, hair, and nail caused as a result of colonization of the keratinized layers of the body (Park et al., 2012; Narshana and Ravikumar, 2018). The infections are predominant in the tropical and subtropical countries due to the hot climate and humid weather. Also, climatic factors, social practices, age, genetic makeup, poor hygiene conditions, diabetes melittus, and immunodeficiency among other related factors have been identified to be predisposing factors to the infections (Ranganathan and Mukhopadhyay, 2010; Ismail and Al-Kafri, 2016).