PERSON-TO-PERSON TRANSFER OF CANDIDA-ALBICANS IN THE SPACECRAFT ENVIRONMENT

We assessed the exchange of Candida albicans among crew members during 10 Space Shuttle missions. Throat, nasal, urine and faecal specimens were collected from 61 crew members twice before and once after space flights ranging from 7 to 10 days in duration; crews consisted of grou ps of five, six or seven men and women. Candida albicans was isolated at least once from 20 of the 61 subjects (33%). Candida strains were i dentified by restriction-fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) after dig estion by the endonucleases EcoRI and HinfI; further discrimination wa s gained by Southern blot hybridization with the C. albicans repeat fr agment 27A. Eighteen of the 20 Candida-positive crew members carried d ifferent strains of C. albicans in the specimens collected. Possible t ransfer of C. albicans between members of the same crew was demonstrat ed only once in the 10 missions studied. We conclude that the transfer of C. albicans among crew members during Space Shuttle flights is les s frequent than had been predicted from earlier reports.