Global Prevalence of Oral Candidiasis in HIV/AIDS-A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Objectives: AIDS is a global endemic disease, with high incidence in Asia and Africa. As a result of destruction of immune system the affected individual is prone to develop opportunistic infections. Oral candidiasis is the most common opportunistic infection and there are several clinical varieties occurring in HIV individuals.
-To determine the overall prevalence of different oral candidiasis in HIV/AIDS.
-To determine the difference in the mean proportions among various types of oral candidiasis in HIV/AIDS.
-To determine the most predominant type of oral candidiasis in HIV/AIDS.
This systematic review aims to analyse the existing literature on the levels of different oral candidiasis in HIV/AIDS.
Methods: Articles on the oral manifestation of HIV infection from 1987-2011 published in English language were thoroughly searched in pubmed, science direct database, along with manual searching with preset inclusion and exclusion criteria. The characteristics like the prevalence frequencies of different oral candidiasis occurring in HIV/AIDS patients were analysed.Recent Articles will be added and updated,and will be presented in the forum.
Results: The systematic search from 78 articles revealed the overall prevalence of oral candidiasis in HIV/AIDS individuals is (38.53%) of which pseudomembranous candidiasis is (18.41%), erythematous (14.84%), angular cheilitis (7.81%) and hyperplastic candidiasis (2.02%). There was a statistically significant difference observed between the weighted mean of different oral candidiasis (one way ANOVA p<0.01).
Conclusions: Pseudomembranous candidiasis is the most predominant oral candidiasis in HIV/AIDS followed by erythematous candidiasis.Angular cheilitis and hyperplastic candidiasis are the less common types. Presence of different varieties of oral candidiasis can be taken as a pathognomic clinical marker in diagnosis of HIV/AIDS.