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Institutional belief · Medicine and radiation safety

X-ray treatment for ringworm

Scalp X-ray irradiation was treated as an acceptably safe mass treatment for childhood ringworm, before its long-term radiation risks were recognized.

1 episode

Current understanding

Current understanding

X-ray irradiation can eliminate tinea capitis, but it exposes healthy tissue to ionizing radiation and increases the later risk of tumors and other radiation-related disease. Effective antifungal drugs make routine therapeutic irradiation for ringworm unnecessary.

Institutional episode

Israel

1949–1960Policy basis

Israel organized a national campaign in which tens of thousands of children with tinea capitis received scalp X-ray irradiation, then a standard treatment whose delayed cancer risks were not yet understood. The Ministry of Health funded and regulated the programme, Hadassah supervised its treatment protocol, and a network including the General Sick Fund, Shaar HaAliyah and Tel HaShomer delivered irradiation. By 1952 treatment was compulsory in parts of the public-health programme, including as a condition for infected children returning to school. Irradiation ended in 1960 as griseofulvin replaced it; long-term Israeli cohort studies later demonstrated increased tumor risk after childhood exposure.

Institutions

  • Ministry of Health
  • Hadassah Medical Organization
  • General Sick Fund (Kupat Holim Clalit)
  • Shaar HaAliyah Hospital
  • Tel HaShomer Hospital

Documented consequences

  • Mass irradiation of children
  • Treatment required for return to school in parts of the programme
  • Increased long-term risk of brain and nervous-system tumors

Institutional machinery

The Ministry of Health made ringworm a reportable public-health responsibility and funded treatment; Hadassah was given national organizing and professional-supervision responsibility and issued the treatment protocol; the General Sick Fund, Shaar HaAliyah Hospital, Tel HaShomer Hospital and other authorized centers delivered irradiation and follow-up care. School nurses and local services identified cases and enforced exclusion from school during parts of treatment, but those distributed services are described as implementation machinery rather than listed as one institution.

Sources and what they establish

Last reviewed: 23/08/2026