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Candida species are considered the most common opportunistic human fungal pathogen due to the presence of various virulence factors, including its ability to form a biofilm that aids in oral candidiasis. Pediatric patients are more susceptible to oral candidiasis than healthy pediatric because of the factors that encourage Candida oral carriage. This current study aims to isolate, evaluated the antifungal effect on Candida spp. and participated in oral candidiasis of pediatric patients in Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk city. The study was performed from September 2021 to February 2022 on two groups of pediatrics which including pediatric patients (n=160) and healthy pediatric (n=50) as a control group. Oral swabs were obtained from 210 participants in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq at the Pediatric teaching hospital of the Sulaymaneyah and Kirkuk governorates. To culture the swabs, Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) medium was used. HiCrome™ Candida Differential agar used to identify Candida isolated, then depending on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region using confirmed polymerase chain reaction. Antifungal sensitivity was done for all C. albicans and non-albicans isolates using five common antifungal disks. Among of the 160 sample of pediatric patient 62 (38.8%) positive for Candida spp. which it is including 17 (27.4 %) and 26 (41.9%), 19 (30.6%) breast feeding, bottle feeding and mixing respectively. While within 50 samples of control group 13 (26%) were positive for Candida spp. which including 2 (15.4%), 9(69.2%), 2(15.4%) of same respectively feeding types. Regarding to the antifungal susceptibility the results showed that C. albicans had higher resistance rates against itraconazole, ketoconazole, and clotrimazole than the non-albicans Candida species However, highly resistant rate were detected in Itraconazole and Ketoconazole with 23.7% and 54.4% respectively, for all Candida species. The Current study concluded that oral candidiasis was more predominant in pediatric patients in compare to healthy pediatric also, and C. albicans is the most prevalent etiologic agent. However, higher rate of sensitivity were detected between Candida species for nystatin, which may suggest as the main treatment for oral Candida infections.

Background and objective: Many tests are conducted for monitoring the progression and the severity of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection. However, the extent to which these tests are helpful in clinical practice and therapeutics of COVID-19 is still ambiguous. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of performing inflammatory marker tests, liver function tests, and procalcitonin test in the diagnosis and monitoring of COVID-19 infection. Methods: The current study compares the results of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, ferritin, and procalcitonin tests in two different populations of 123 COVID-19 suspects and a control group of 110 healthy individuals in Erbil city of Kurdistan region of Iraq to search for possible significant differences in both groups. Results: The COVID-19 group had significantly higher ferritin and procalcitonin mean values than the control group (P = 0.001). The differences between alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase were significant in some age and gender classes of both groups. However, the overall differences were not statistically significant (P = 0.339 and 0.286, respectively). Conclusion: The outcome of the current study suggests that among the group of tests conducted for the study population, the most useful tests are ferritin and procalcitonin to monitor the COVID-19 patients' health status.