Medicine: Itchy Town

All the school kids in the Ontario city of Sault Ste. Marie (pop. 32,000) were having their heads examined last week. And with good reason: the Soo had been hit by a raging epidemic of tinea capitis (ringworm of the scalp). Of 5,712 elementary schoolchildren, 1,300 had ringworm; so had 150 preschool moppets and 64 youths and adults. On streets and playgrounds, every bobbing head was topped with a white cotton skullcap, compulsory for schoolchildren, strongly recommended for all others. It was the severest ringworm epidemic ever recorded in Canada or the U.S.

Hour after hour, every day, hundreds of itchy victims...

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