American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 27, 345-349, Copyright © 1974 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Isolation of Candida species from the gastrointestinal tract in malnourished children

¹ From the Gastroenterological Research Unit, Princess Margaret Children's Medical Research Foundation, Perth, Western Australia, and the Department of Child Health, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia

The rates of isolation of various species of Candida from gastric and small intestinal contents were studied in three groups of patients: 27 relatively well-nourished Australian children of Caucasian extraction, and two groups in which malnutrition is endemic (30 Australian aboriginal children and 27 Indonesian children). The rate of isolation of Candida sp. was significantly increased in the gastric and intestinal contents of the malnourished children (in each instance P < 0.025). There were considerable differences in the species of Candida found in the three groups: isolations of the known pathogen, C. albicans, were uncommon in the well-nourished children, whereas the species, C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis, were predominant in the malnourished children. The reasons for these differences are obscure and may be related to genetic or environmental differences or to undetermined sequelae of malnutrition. It seems possible that the increased incidence of Candida sp. in the gut of these children contributes to the common problem of diarrhea in malnutrition.