Neutral red staining and trypsin treatment to study viability and culture yield of Dermatophytes

Dermatophytosis is common fungal infection of human being. To diagnose dermatophytic infections microscopic examination should be followed by culture which is essential step. Many times fungus may fail to grow on culture even after direct microscopy is positive due to non-viability of fungus. In such cases, neutral red staining helps us to know about non-viability of fungus and it has been revealed that trypsinization enhances the rate of isolation of fungus on culture. Therefore, the study was undertaken with an aim to look for the viability and yield of dermatophytes on neutral red staining and trypsinization respectively.