Medicine: Blame the Barber

Ever since an epidemic of scalp ringworm started in eastern U.S. cities three years ago, many a small boy has been sent home from school for treatment. But doctors knew only one effective remedy: removing the infected hair, either by X ray or by pulling. Last week doctors of the U.S. Public Health Service had cheering news: scalping, they reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, may be unnecessary. In a wide test in Hagerstown, Md. they had discovered that an ointment rubbed on the head can cure scalp ringworm.

Examination of 8,657 Hagerstown school children revealed that 479 little boys and 86 little girls had ringworm. After trying hair pulling and 17 different salves, doctors finally brought the epidemic under control. Most effective method: an ointment made of salicylanilide. Daily rubbings-on for two months cured 57% of the first test group; a later test cured 84%.

Because boys catch ringworm five or six times as often as girls, doctors used to think their shorter hair and the fact that they “scuffle more” than girls had something to do with it. By shrewd detective work, an altogether different explanation was found: boys get ringworm in barbershops. The P.H.S. men noticed that 65% of the boys’ scalp infections were in the “clipper area.” Following up the clue, they learned that, sure enough, barbers’ clippers (also combs, brushes and scissors) in Hagerstown barbershops were heavily infected.

The barbers meekly agreed to sterilize their instruments in potent disinfectants that the P.H.S. prepared for them.