ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

M.G. Usha , D.C. Shwetha and R. Lava
JJM Medical College, Davanagere – 577 001, Karnataka, India.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2012;6(4):1933-1937
© The Author(s). 2012
Received: 11/08/2012 | Accepted: 23/09/2012 | Published: 31/12/2012
Abstract

Keratomycosis is infection of cornea caused by different fungal species. It is most prevalent in agricultural area and hence in India. It is a major blinding disease second only to cataract and accounts for almost 50% of patients with corneal ulcer. This study was done to determine the frequency of occurence and other demographic characteristics of keratomycosis in and around Davangere, Karnataka. The present study was done over a period of 15 year from 1996-2011, among patients referred to department of Microbiology, J.J.M Medical college, davangere. Corneal scrapings were collected from total of 514 suspected cases of Keratomycosis and investigated. Out of 514 patients with corneal ulcers, 201 were diagnosed as keratomycosis cases (39.1%). Males were most commonly affected (Male : female= 2:1) and seen commonly between the age group 21-40 yrs (70.14%). Most common fungus isolated was fusarium seen in 94 cases (46.76%), followed by aspergillus 41 (20.39%), helminthosporium 17 (8.45%), penicillium ten(4.97%) and Candida albicans five(2.48%) etc. Agricultural trauma being the most common predisposing factor accounting 54.72% and agricultural workers are commonly affected group (i.e., 64.67%) in this study.

Keywords

Corneal scrapings, Keratomycosis, 10% KOH wet mount,  Fungal culture

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© The Author(s) 2012. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.