Fungal Genomics & Biology
Open Access

Fungal Infections in Children: An Overview

Kosuri Sindhu^{* *}Correspondence: Dr. Kosuri Sindhu, Dr. Ntr University of Health Sciences, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India, Email:

Author info »

Description

Fungal infection (FI) is very common now-a-days throughout the nature of the world. Fungal infections are the skin diseases caused by fungus. The fungal infection is also called as “mycosis”. In human beings, the fungal infection will occur whenever a fungus occupies over the human body’s area and immunity system of the body is unable to handle with such fungus. There fungus lives in water, soil, air as well as plants and it is also known fact that some of the fungus lives inside the body of the human being. These fungal infections are very common in children. Many children are suffered with one or more fungal infections throughout the world.

For exemplification, yeast causes rashes on neck of the child or patches on the tongue which is considered to be yeast infection. The fungal infections were very uncommon toward the start of this century are presently progressively developing at a quick rate. This is likely because of the aftereffect of the expansion in number of resistant traded off children. In general, strong immunity system which has the ability to handle fungi is present in children. Very rare numbers of fungi out of thousand fundi are pathogenic. In this article, a general overview of fungal infections especially in children has been explained. Also, a focus has been done on the type of fungal infection occurred in children.

Common symptoms such as rashes, itching, irritation, flaky skin, swelling, redness, blisters etc. can be seen when a fungal infection occurred. These FI’s are categorized into three types: (a) Superficial (b) Subcutaneous (c) Systemic. Superficial infections occur on nails, hair, as well as skin while subcutaneous infection occurs in the tissue underneath the skin. Systemic infections are the very rare infections which can cause severe effects. These systemic infections are sub-categorized as endemic and opportunistic infections. Dornbusch et al. have discussed invasive fungal infections in children. The authors have described that infections in children (especially in pediatric patients) occurred mostly with Candida spp., Aspergillus spp., Cryptococcus spp. type’s fungi [1]. Jain et al. has made a review on the prevention, diagnosis and the clinical methods of fungal infections in children in the year 2010 [2]. Hawkins and Smidt have made a detailed analysis on the superficial infections of fungi in children [3]. The authors have described fungal infections of skin such as tinea corporis, tinea pedism, tinea cruris as well as tinea manuum etc. They have recommended diagnosing the infection with tissue biopsy if the effected infection is deep and severe. Likewise, many recommendations for diagnosis of several infections such as tinea infection, nail infections, hair infections etc. Another analysis on the invasive infections of fungi in children is made by Seth et al. in the year 2019 [4]. The authors have described the preliminary infection concepts and diagnostic methods such as radial diagnosis, molecular techniques etc. They have stated that diagnosis for fungal infections in children is quite challenging and complex task. They have concluded that radial diagnosis should be explored more to resolve the complex problems of fungal infections in children.

Undoubtedly, a fungal infection in children is a very challenging problem throughout the world. Many diagnostic methods have been used to cope with such fungal infections. Many other invasive fungal infections have also been identified. Moreover, there is a need to make advancement in diagnostic methods like tissue biopsy etc. There is also a need to focus on the radial diagnosis advancements for dealing with fungal infections.

References

1. Dornbusch HJ, Manzoni P, Roilides E, Walsh TJ, Groll AH. Invasive fungal infections in children. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2009;28(8)Fungal_Infections_in_Children.15.aspx' target='_blank'>:734-737.
2. Jain A, Jain S, Rawat S. Emerging fungal infections among children: A review on its clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and prevention. J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2010;2(4):314.
3. Hawkins DM, Smidt AC. Superficial fungal infections in children. Pediat Clin. 2014;61(2):443-455.
4. Seth R, Xess I, Jana M. Diagnosis of invasive fungal infections in children. Ind Pediat. 2019;56(3):229-236.