Candidiasis can range in severity. It may be very mild and can go unnoticed, or there may be pain in the mouth, especially on swallowing solid foods, or in the vagina in women or under the foreskin in men. It can also cause distortions in taste.

Genital candidiasis occurs commonly in people with normal immune systems.

Oral candidiasis is the commonest manifestation of this fungus in HIV infection. It may indicate only very slight damage of the immune system, not necessarily by HIV itself. Pseudomembranous candidiasis, or thrush, looks like white blobs on the tongue, gums, inner cheek or throat. These white patches can usually be scraped off, unlike hairy oral leukoplakia. However, one type of oral candidiasis can cause unmovable, well-defined lesions. Atrophic (erythrematous) candidiasis causes red patches on the tongue, gums and inner cheeks, or white or red cracks at the corners of the mouth known as angular chelitis.

Candidiasis can also affect the sinuses and nasal passages, causing headache, pressure, heaviness, difficulty breathing and considerable mucous discharge (Bessarab 2003, 2004).

Oesophageal candidiasis is caused by Candida in the gullet (oesophagus), where it causes chest pain and difficulty in swallowing. Although the mouth and the gullet adjoin one another, oesophageal candidiasis occurs after a greater degree of immune damage. It is an AIDS-defining condition.

Cerebral candidiasis (Candida in the brain) and pulmonary candidiasis (Candida in the lungs) can sometimes occur in people with severe immune damage. These conditions are not common, but could mimic the symptoms of toxoplasmosis brain abscesses or Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP), respectively. Very rarely, Candida can spread to other organs such as the eye, liver and kidney.