Scabies and other skin diseases in pre-school children in Ujamaa villages in Tanzania.

A survey of skin diseases was carried out in pre-school children in five Ujamaa villages in Rufiji district and 532 children (5.3% of the total population) were screened. The results showed that scabies was the commonest skin problem affecting 31% of the children. Primary pyoderma and fungal infections were relatively less common and accounted for 7.0 and 2.4% respectively. Staphylococcus aureus, Group A beta haemolytic streptococci and Corynebacterium diphteriae were the commonest pathogeneic bacteria isolated from both infected scabies and primary pyoderma. Tinea capitis was similarly the commonest fungal infection and Microsporium audouinii was the main pathogen. The high prevalence of scabies was attributed to poor hygiene, overcrowding with intimate personal contact. The low prevalence of pyoderma was due to the fact that we did not include secondarily infected scabies and eczema amongst the cases of pyoderma.