‘End of the road for terbinafine’ in dermatophytosis: Is it a valid conclusion?

Sir, We read with keen interest the article by Singh and Shukla on the effectiveness of terbinafine in dermatophytosis, and wish to draw attention to some points.1 There is no doubt that dermatophytosis has progressed from being an innocuous, easily treatable infection to one that is rapidly assuming gigantic proportions in India, with chronicity and multiple recurrences, although these terms have been only recently defined.2 Drugs such as terbinafine that were uniformly effective in treating dermatophytosis earlier are now seldom proving so in the duration conventionally considered to be sufficient. However, to conclude regarding a mainstay agent as abysmally ineffective would require consideration of some pertinent issues.