A comparative evaluation of oral candida carriage in HIV-infected individuals and HIV seronegative healthy individuals in North Karnataka

Abstract

Candida is one of the most common opportunistic fungi in HIV/AIDS cases. A detailed knowledge about oral candida carriage in HIV seropositive individuals is of paramount importance in the treatment of Oral Candidiasis (OC). In the present work, our aim was to determine and compare the candida carriage rate both in HIV infected and HIV non-infected healthy individuals along with knowing the species diversity of candida in HIV infected with OC and without OC and HIV non-infected healthy individuals. Methods: A total of 274 HIV sero- positive individuals formed the test group. Test population was further grouped as Group 1 (HIV seropositive subjects with OC) comprising of 112 cases and Group 2 (HIV seropositive subjects without OC) comprising of 162 cases. The control group included 260 HIV seronegative healthy individuals.Concentrated oral rinse method was used to collect the specimen. Samples were inoculated on Sabouraud’s Dextrose Agar (SDA) and candida isolates were speciated by standard techniques.Statistical analysis of the data was done using Chi-square test and unpaired ‘t’ test methods. Results: HIV infected individuals with OC showed highest rate of candida carriage (97.32%). Rate of candida carriage in HIV seropositive individuals without OC (53.70%) was significantly more (p<0.001) compared to HIV seronegative healthy individuals (33.07%). In all the groups Candida albicans was the most commonly isolated species (73.48%). Conclusions: Increase in the oral candida carriage in HIV seropositive individuals may be due to immunosuppression. A few NAC spp. show high degree of resistance to commonly used antifungal. Therefore. it is essential to speciate candida isolates from HIV infected individuals.