UNTIL recent years, moniliasis of the genitalia was regarded largely as a complication of diabetes or of pregnancy. In these instances, moniliasis has been familiar as vulvovaginitis in women, and, in the case of diabetic men, usually as intertriginous dermatitis of the genitocrural folds and surrounding areas. At times, also, in male diabetics, balanoposthitis has been encountered, attributable properly to invasion by Candida albicans as a result of circumstances in the skin and urine which enhance the growth of the yeast-like pathogen.
The introduction of broad-spectrum antibiotics heralded an upsurge in reports of monilial infections. Increasingly among nondiabetic and nonpregnant patients, it was asserted, monilial infection manifested itself in mucocutaneous and systemic forms. The ascendency of C. albicans was accounted for by the cataclysmic upset in biologic balance of the micro-organismal flora of the body and the suppression of antagonistic bacterial species, leaving the yeast-like forms to flourish rampant.