Hair in Infectious Disease: Recognition, Treatment, and Prevention

The novel viral pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has sparked uncertainties and controversies as to its origin, epidemiology, and natural course. In this situation, the medical disciplines have strived to contribute to a better understanding of the disease with the best available evidence gained from the scientific method of observation and statistics. The study of the cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19 has evolved with the hope that they may be useful as markers for the disease, for prognostication, and further insights into the pathogenesis of the disease manifestations. In the wake of COVID-19, we have decided to take a more general look at the hair and scalp in infectious disease. Specifically, we must recognize that infectious diseases have wider preconditions besides the infectious agents, to include environmental and societal factors. Unless we also take account of the ecological, immunological, and behavioral circumstances that affect the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, including those of the hair and scalp, our knowledge of the pathogens and their connection to clinical disease presentation remain only partial and incomplete. This book aims at illustrating in detail the environmental and individual preconditions, the pathogens, the clinical presentations, and the management of the infectious diseases that affect the hair and scalp, to include superficial and deep bacterial, fungal, and viral infections, infestations, systemic infectious diseases causing hair loss, their effective treatment, and their prevention. 

Hair in Infectious Disease offers a complete overview of infectious hair disease and guides the practitioner in the choice of the best treatment; it will be a valued companion to board-certified dermatologists and dermatologists in training.

Ralph M. Trüeb, MD, is Professor of Dermatology. He received his MD and Swiss Board Certification for Dermatology and Venerology as well as for Allergology and Clinical Immunology from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. 1994-5 he spent a year at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas with Rick Sontheimer and at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Dallas with Bruce Beutler to complete his Fellowship in Immunodermatology. After 20 years tenure at the Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Zurich, where he founded and was head of the Hair Consultation Clinic, he established in 2010 his private Center for Dermatology and Hair Diseases in Zurich, where he offers since 2013 doctors-in-training and dermatologists international traineeships in Medical Trichology/Trichiatry. He is founding President of the Swiss Trichology Study group (founding year: 1999), and past-President of the European Hair Research Society (2008-11). His clinical research interests focus on hair loss, inflammatory phenomena, hair aging and anti-aging, hair and nutrition, hair care and cosmetics, and patient expectation management. He is currently author of 261 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and 8 textbooks on hair.

Hudson Dutra Rezende, MD is a board certified Dermatologist especially dedicated to the management of hair and scalp conditions. From 2019 to 2020, Dr. Dutra was invited to join a board of Dermatologists of the Brazilian Society of Dermatology, Regional Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro, when he was in charge of several medical events. In addition to his private practice in Sao Paulo, Dr. Dutra also teaches Trichology at Lusíada Foundation, Santos, working with physicians enrolled in the Postgraduate Dermatology Course. In 2020, as the pandemic spread, he focused his clinical researches on the better understanding of COVID-19 related hair loss and its impact on the quality of life in patients from Sao Paulo University (USP). He is one of the Editors of the Brazilian book Dermatologia das Alopecias e Estudos dos Cabelos and he has also published numerous peer-viewed papers and book chapters on hair and scalp diseases.

Maria Fernanda Reis Gavazzoni Dias, MD, MsC. PhD is Professor of Dermatology; Chair of the Postgraduate Dermatology Course and Co-Chair of the Residency Training Program in Dermatology, at Fluminense Federal University (UFF), Brazil. Thesis advisor at the Department of Dermatopathology-UFF. Dr. Maria Fernanda Gavazzoni is the founder of the First Alopecia Clinic at Antonio Pedro Federal Hospital-UFF, with special interest in cicatricial alopecia in patients of color and tropical infections. She is board member of the American Hair Research Society (AHRS) since 2018, former Treasurer and Secretary of the Brazilian Society of Dermatology (SBD) 2009-10 and former president of Fluminense Society of Brazilian Dermatologists 2019-20. She is the editor and author of the first text book on hair in Portuguese, several book chapters, and peer-viewed scientific publications.