candida albicans is a common skin fungus. In fact, it is the usual culprit whenever someone, whose immune defences are down, contracts a skin infection. The result of the infection is more of a nuisance than anything else. However, as frequently is the case, Candida sometimes escapes from the skin and gets into the circulatory system. The result is what is called systematic Candidiasis , a condition that can prove fatal.

One way to control infections could be to starve the pathogen of something which is essential for its survival but for which it has to depend on its host. It turns out that one such factor is iron. Iron is essential for a number of many processes in living systems; it acts as a co-factor of a large number of enzymes, including those that are necessary for the copying of dna, and for reducing molecular oxygen (the ultimate step in breathing). Many pathogens, for example the bacteria that cause influenza and plague, require iron