PREVALENCE OF CANDIDA SPECIES IN NIGERIAN CHILDREN WITH DIARRHEA

A total of 257 stool specimens comprising 203 from diarrhoeal children and 54 asymptomatic controls were collected from patients attending d ifferent hospitals/clinics in Lagos and Ekpoma, Nigeria and were scree ned for fungal agents using standard methods. Of the total number scre ened, 165 (64.2%) patients had fungal agents in their stools. Of these , 157 (77.3%) patients had diarrhoea and 8 (14.8%) patients were asymp tomatic. Of these total number of positive isolates, Candida albicans, C. tropicalis, C. pseudotropicalis, C glabrata and C. parasilosis acc ounted for 59.4%, 30.9%, 5.0%, 3.0% and 1.8% in that order. Results re vealed a significant relationship (p<0.05) between fungi and incidence of diarrhoea in children. There was no significant relationship (p>0. 05) between the age group studied and the incidence of fungal diarrhoe a in children. The sex of the children also showed no significant rela tionship (p>0.05) with the incidence of fungal diarrhoea. Results have revealed the emergence of Candida species in cases of childhood diarr hoea in our environment.