Abstract
This work was carried out to investigate the incidence of the invasive Candida albicans fungus in oral swabs collected from a private primary school and to confirm its invasiveness by RT-PCR. Accordingly, the total of (368) students in the age range of (7-12) years from both sexes was orally examined for the incidence of Candida albicans from October 2019 to March 2020. Wet oral swabs were directly cultured on Sabouraud agar medium, and positive cultures were examined microbiologically. Results of Gram's staining revealed the isolation of the invasive Candida albicans confirmed by the germ tube test. This fungus was significantly (P<0.05) prevalent in most of the school students, where males were more affected (64.53%) than female students (35.47%) across all age groups. Moreover, the molecular analysis of the isolated fungal strains confirmed the invasiveness of the isolates.
Highlights
The discomfort of thrush has been known to occur in people for over 2000 years, where Candida species presented as both commensals and opportunistic pathogens in the oral cavity [1,2,3]
Recent findings showed an increase in the global burden of fungal infection, especially for Candida albicans, where the proportion represented by children is mainly unknown [6, 7, 11]
Most of the local studies had neglected the incidence of the pathogenic Candida albicans in the oral cavity of small children [17, 18, 19]
Summary
The discomfort of thrush has been known to occur in people for over 2000 years, where Candida species presented as both commensals and opportunistic pathogens in the oral cavity [1,2,3]. Candida albicans fungal strains were found as a commensal in the oral cavity of about (46%) of one-year-old infants and (39%) of 1–6-year-old children [5]. A remarkable increase in Candidiasis has been observed, as reflected by the increased incidence of Candida albicans infections among children frequently [7&8]. Oral Candidiasis became a significant source of morbidity, as it can cause chronic pain or discomfort upon eating, limiting nutrition intake in children of different ages [10 &11]. This study was carried out to estimate the prevalence of invasive Candida albicans fungus in oral swabs collected from a private primary school and to confirm the invasiveness of the pathogen by RT-PCR
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