Allen C. Green

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES AND PSORIASIS

Psoriasis among full‐blood Australian Aborigines appears to be rare or absent. After examination of some three thousand of these people in central, northern, and southern Australia, I have not seen psoriasis. Other medical and nursing observers have also not seen psoriasis in these people. Two references in the literature to psoriasis in Abotigines are reviewed briegly. The author has seen only one, male, part‐Aborigine (more Causcasian than Aborigine), with in a female Aborigine whose father was said to be “not tribal”. A third was recently reported to me.

Pathogenesis associated with hair follicle mites (Demodex spp.) in Australian Aborigines

Demodex folliculorum and D. brevis are found in different habitats in the skin: the former in the hair follicles, the latter in the sebaceous glands. Both seem minor pathogens—merely harvesting the cells of their respective habitats. D. folliculorum was found aggregated (all stages) and plugging the follicular orifices; D. brevis, on the other hand, was usually solitary. In one case marked degeneration of the sebaceous gland, with leukocyte invasion, was associated with D. brevis.

Trichophyton Rubrum Infections in Northern Territory Aborigines

Trichophyton rubrum infections are endemic among Aborigines living in the high rainfall areas of the Northern Territory of Australia. Over sixty cases have been verified by laboratory examinations.

Australian aborigines and their dermatophytes.

In Australia, ringworm is common among Aborigines and, to a lesser extent, among other ethnic groups.

Tinea capitis in aboriginal children at Maningrida, Northern Territory, Australia. A variant of Microsporum canis.

A high incidence od endemic tinea capitis was found among children at the Aboriginal settlement of Maningrida, Arnhem Land, on the northern coast of Australia some 400 km east of Darwin. The cause was a variant of Microsporum canis which will be referred to as the‘Maningrida’type. It was isolated form 21 (25.3%) brush samples taken form the scalps of 83 Aboriginal Children.

Hair follicle mites (Acari: Demodicidae) from Australian Aborigines.

Demodex folliculorum and D. brevis have been found in taken from full‐blood Australian Aborigines. The incidence of demodicid infestations was highest among males, 66%, in two groups of Aborigines but the mites were absent in a third group.

Scarification, Cupping and Other Traditional Measures, with References to Folk Medicine in Greece and Elsewhere*

A brief historical review of scarification and cupping is given.

Discoid erythematosus in Australian Aborigines

DLE is geographically widespread among Australian Aborigines. The disease has been seen from Cairns in Queensland to the Kimberley region in Western Australia, throughout the Northern Territory and in the coastal regions of South Australia. Aborigines living in and around Balranald in southern New South Wales and in Swan Hill in northern Victoria also have DLE. In these parts of Australia DLE is much more prevalent in full-blood and part-Aborigines than in non-Aborigines living in the same geographic regions.

VERRUCA DORSI MANUS ET PEDIS

THOUGH described by Unna, mentioned by Waisman and Montgomery in 19,42, and referred to in several text-books as hard nsevi, it appears that this condition has received less notice than others not so common, but equally innocuous. Personal observation in Australia and Great Britain, and discussion with several colleagueSj indicate a more frequent incidence than is generally appreciated. Indeed, the presence of these small lesions, sometimes in great numbers, is often overlooked. In most instances, patients rarely observe or complain of these small, multiple, discrete hyperkeratotic lesions. If noticed, some have mentioned occasional mild pruritus or increased prominence after bathing. It has been rare for any information to be forthcoming concerning the onset, duration or progress of individual lesions. The earliest appearances seem to be minute, discrete, skin coloured elevations seen only on stretching the skin and examining with the light falling obliquely. The number and size of many of these lesions increase over periods of up to two years, followed by lack of further appreciable changes. Others lemain unchanged for several years. Some, on reaching a diameter of about 4 or 5 mms. develop scaling on the surface or about the periphery. Others have disappeared, it seems, over a few weeks.

Australian Aborigines and ringworm (tinea)

The species and variants of dermatophytes which affect Aborigines are usually different from those found among nonAborigines and vary with geographical location. The granular variant of Trichophyton rubrum (T. ruhrum) is isolated from Aborigines in the hot, humid, high rainfall, monsoonal areas of tropical northern Australia. Trichophyton tonsurans (T. tonsurans) is common in drier central Australia. Trichophyton violaceum (T violaceum) occurs along the coastal areas of southern Australia. A new variant of Microsporum canis was isolated in 1977. With one exception, this variant has been confined to Maningrida, 400 km east of Darwin in the Northern Territory.