Occupational mycoses.

Moulds exist widely in nature and because of their ability to catabolise or synthesise certain complex organic substances some are used in industries such as food, brewing, and drug manufacture as raw material or catalysts. In addition, some pathogenic moulds may live and reproduce in fur, straws, wood, grain, and dusts. In recent years there has been a real increase in the number of patients suffering from disease caused by mycobacteria.' A high proportion of these patients work in dusty occupations or other trades.2 3 We report here on some cases of occupational mycoses. Group 1-Four animal handlers who fed rabbits suffered from Tinea corporis on the face and hands. They were infected within, two months of beginning work. Trichophyton gypseum was found in cultures both from the rabbits' fur and the desquamated epidermis of the feeders' skin lesions. Group 2-Nine silkreeling workers were exposed to the spores of Beauveria vuillemin. Two weeks later, six had developed contact and allergic dermatitis. Beauveria vuillemin was seen in cultures of the skin crust in three patients; eosinophilia was present in two cases. Group 3-A carpenter aged 59 noted verrucous nodules growing on his left leg that spread slowly upward with the growth of satellite lesions. The nodules were bright, dark red, and full of pus and the skin around the affected areas was oedematous. As the lesions developed the leg became swollen and covered with many nodules with plaque like and cicatrical lesions. A skin biopsy showed Chromoblasto mycosis and Dematiacious mould was found on culture. Oral potassium iodide, amphotericin B injected locally, and freezing with liquid nitrogen were ineffective and the left leg had finally to be amputated. Group 4-Nine farmers had disease of the eyes during a busy harvest, four suffering from acute keratitis and kerato ulcer and five from acute conjunctivitis. Fusarium link exEr was found on cultures of the conjunctival sac. Group S-A dynamite worker worked in a small