Oral candidiasis and oral yeast carriage among ins

Authors: Elaine Blignaut

Publish Date: 2007/02/12

Volume: 163, Issue: 2, Pages: 67-73

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Abstract

South Africa currently has an estimated 500000 AIDS orphans many of whom are HIVpositive Oral candidiasis commonly occurs in both adult and paediatric HIV/AIDS patients Published information on HIVpositive children in Africa mainly concerns hospitalised patients The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of oral candidiasis and oral yeast carriage among paediatric HIV/AIDS patients residing in orphanages in Gauteng South Africa and to compare the prevalence of isolated yeast species with species obtained from adult HIV/AIDS patients Eightyseven paediatric HIV/AIDS patients residing in five homes were examined and a swab taken from the dorsal surface of the tongue cultured on CHROMagar and yeast isolates identified with the ATB 32C commercial system The species prevalence of 57 identified isolates was compared with that of 330 isolates from adult HIV/AIDS patients Twelve 138 children presented with clinically detectable candidiasis Yeasts were isolated from 0 to 53 of children in the individual homes with Candida albicans 404 and C dubliniensis 263 constituting the most frequently isolated species Gentian violet prophylaxis was administered in one particular home and a higher carriage rate 666 of nonC albicans and nonC dubliniensis was observed among these children The prevalence of C albicans was lower while the prevalence of C dubliniensis C glabrata and C tropicalis was significantly higher p ≤ 0001 among the children than among adult HIV/AIDS patients These findings indicate a role for yeast culture and species determination in cases with candidiasis in institutionalized paediatric HIV/AIDS patients

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