Hair Loss in a 5-Year-Old Boy

A 5-year-old boy experienced a solitary patch of hair loss on the left frontal area of his scalp, which persisted despite initial treatment with oral antibiotics. The affected area was a 3×3-cm erythematous, crusted, scaling patch with broken hairs, but without purulent drainage or follicular pustules. The boy lived with 2 healthy cats and 1 dog, but Wood light fluorescence was absent, and initial potassium hydroxide preparation was nondiagnostic. However, a fungal culture of the broken hairs and scale showed some growth after 5 days, indicating a possible fungal infection as the cause of the alopecia.