CHAPTER XXXIII

PINTA

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

This is a parasitic skin affection due to various species of fungi. It is only found in the tropical portion of the new world, and is especially prevalent in Colombia, where it has been estimated 4% of the population have the disease. It is also found in Mexico, Central America and some of the other countries of South America as well as Colombia.

Other names for the disease are caraate and mal de los pintos. At first it was thought that the different colors shown by the eruption were due to varying depths of the proliferating fungi in the skin layers but it is now known that the explanation is in a variety of species in the different types of pinta.

The pure violet pinta is caused by _Aspergillus pictor_ while the grayish-violet one is due to _Penicillium montoyai_. A species of _Monilia_ causes the white variety and different species of _Montoyella_ a black and a red variety respectively. The genus _Montoyella_ is stated by Castellani to have both slender and thick mycelial threads, from the thicker of which spring delicate hyphae terminating in pear-shaped conidia.

Material scraped from the lesions and mounted in liquor potassae shows the fructification terminations characteristic of _Aspergillus_ or _Penicillium_ in the violet or gray-violet varieties while the white, black and red ones only show mycelial threads and scattered spores. These pinta species of fungi can be cultivated on Sabouraud’s medium.

Montoya thinks that the pinta fungi lead a saprophytic existence in the waters of mines or other places with a constant high temperature, and states that he has obtained pure cultures from such sources.

SYMPTOMATOLOGY

The spots of the eruption are generally first noted on the hands or face and are rather rough, dry and only slightly raised. Itching is quite marked and the scratching probably is largely responsible for the gradual spread of the affection over the body generally.

The palms of the hands, soles of the feet and nails are never involved. The course is essentially chronic and shows no tendency to spontaneous cure.

The red pinta is that most often found in white people, the patches being of brick-red color.

The white pinta may not only be caused by a species of _Monilia_ but it may represent an area formerly invaded by a species producing some other color and then dying out leaving a vitiligo-like area.

The violet pinta is quite common among miners, while the black one is the type which more often appears in the black population. The black varieties may show either a pure black or a violet-black color.

TREATMENT

Local applications of iodine preparations or of chrysarobin seem most effective. The resorcin sulphur ointment noted under tinea cruris is best for the face.

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