Medicine: Epidemic in Retreat

In Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, 715 youngsters out of the city’s 6,000 elementary-school children trooped back to classes last week with their heads covered by white skull caps. After twelve months of battle, the “Soo” is winning its fight against an epidemic of tinea capitis (ringworm of the scalp) among its youngsters (TIME, Nov. 3), but has still not been able to stamp out the stubborn disease.

Two hundred of the children wearing the cotton caps last week still had the infection; the others donned caps purely as a precaution.

The city’s ordeal began in the spring of 1950: five cases cropped up, caught hold, and multiplied with raging speed. By winter, 1,459 schoolchildren had infected scalps, and the Soo was in the midst of the worst ringworm epidemic ever recorded north of the Rio Grande. Itching heads were thrust under ultraviolet lamps to make the disease show up, shaved, scrubbed, treated with salves, and encased in sterile white cotton caps to prevent spreading. Doctors tried new drugs by the score. Special X-ray clinics were set up, and skilled radiologists were brought in to treat the itchy youngsters.

Slowly, the epidemic was beaten to a standstill. By last week 1,357 cases had been stamped out, and only the most stubborn cases still required the swaddled-head treatment. With care and hard work, Sault Ste. Marie confidently expects it can throw away the last of its white cotton caps next spring.