Distribution Analysis of Candida albicans according to Sex and Age in Clinical Specimen Testing for Sexually Transmitted Diseases

The prevalence of candidiasis, a contagious disease with high morbidity and mortality, has sharply increased globally over the last two decades. Candida albicans can cause serious infections in patients with weak immunity and in recipients of prolonged antibiotic treatment. Consequently, rapid and accurate identification of species can play an important role in the treatment of candidiasis. Here, we investigated the positive rate and infection trend of C. albicans according to age, specimen type, and sex using multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction-based testing of samples collected for the diagnosis of sexually transmitted diseases in Korea between 2018 and 2020. When the type of specimen collected was a swab, the positive rate of C. albicans was higher among younger women, and tended to decrease with age. Analysis of swab samples revealed higher positive rates than urinalysis. The reduction trend in positive rates by age was comparable between the overall samples and urine specimens. Among male patients, the positive rate did not differ substantially across the various types of specimens collected. Previous studies have shown a higher prevalence of non-albicans Candida species than C. albicans in clinical specimens, and exclusion of the former from our analysis may be a limitation of this study. However, our findings contribute significantly to the literature because globally, there is a paucity of epidemiological studies using molecular techniques to detect C. albicans in sexually transmitted disease test samples.

Automated summary

The prevalence of candidiasis, a highly contagious disease with high morbidity and mortality, has significantly increased worldwide in the past two decades. This study investigated the positive rate and infection trend of Candida albicans, a major causative agent of candidiasis, based on age, specimen type, and sex using real-time polymerase chain reaction-based testing of samples collected for sexually transmitted disease diagnosis in Korea between 2018 and 2020. The findings showed that the positive rate of C. albicans was higher among younger women when swab specimens were collected, and decreased with age. The study contributes significantly to the literature due to the scarcity of epidemiological studies using molecular techniques to detect C. albicans in sexually transmitted disease test samples globally.