Superficial oral fungal infections.

Fungal infections in humans are provoked and exacerbated by defects in the cellular immune system. Hence, the emergence of novel clinical variants of oral candidoses and rare mycoses with the pandemic spread of human immunodeficiency virus infection is not surprising. The new clinical entities of oral candidoses that have been described in the past few years have had a significant impact on the classification of these diseases. Classification of oral candidoses is an issue addressed in some detail here. Angular cheilitis is a disease commonly associated with Candida infection. In the West, it is frequently seen in the elderly, but a report from Asia indicates that the disease may be prevalent in the young age groups due to factors such as anemia, despite the similarity of the infective agents. A novel cofactor implicated in infectious states has been the host blood group secretor status, and data from three studies suggest that the latter may play an intriguing role in the pathogenesis of oral candidosis. Finally, a new mouse model has been described as a substitute for the rat model in investigating the host-parasite interactions in oral candidosis, and its pros and cons are reviewed.