DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2013.v01i02.010

Pages: 69-75

Abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate Candida carriage in different clinical samples from HIV-infected and non infected patients. A total of 574 individuals comprised of 180 HIV-infected patients and 394 HIV seronegative individuals with symptoms of candidiasis were included in this study. The samples were collected from the oral lesions, blood, vaginal fluid, urine, nail scrapings, male genital and cerebrospinal fluid of patients. Clinical samples were aseptically inoculated onto Sabouraud’s dextrose agar (SDA) for pure culture. Yeast recovered were speciated by standard techniques. Prevalence of OC was 83.3% in HIV-infected patients, while 68.3% in HIV seronegative individuals. Candida albicans was the dominant species in both groups, while non-albicans Candida (NAC) isolates were 39.9% and 39.4% in HIV-infected patients and HIV seronegative individuals respectively. C. albicans was dominant among oral cavity samples of both HIV-infected (65.8%) and HIV negative (67.8%) patients. In contrast, among bloodstream samples NAC species responded for almost 54.8% to 77.4% of both HIV-infected and HIV negative group respectively. The increased in prevalence of non-albicans Candida species in HIV seronegative patients could be due to previous use of antibiotic and azole. Although C. albicans was frequently isolated species but non-albicans Candida species are not uncommon in India and there incidence is rising in patients with suppressed immune status. Therefore systematic oral examination for HIV-infected patients should be recommended together with the analysis of their immune status for better management of opportunistic infections in these patients.