Prevalence and Sensitivity Patterns of Candidal Infections in Various Tertiary Care Health Subunits of Karachi

Mostly candida resides as an opportunistic organism on epithelial surfaces of human being. However, under auspicious conditions can cause infections including serious life threatening invasive candidiasis with subsequent mortality particularly in immune deficit and hospitalized patients having co-morbids. Limited data are published on the prevalence of candidiasis, based on the researches conducted at few tertiary care settings which are not representing the overall disease burden in our country, Pakistan. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the frequency and sensitivity patterns of candidiasis in our community. Methods: Out of total 1020 specimens, 130 clinical samples were identified as candidal positive, obtained from March to May 2018. These samples were isolated from vagina, oropharynx, urine, tracheal aspirates, pus, blood, tips of the intubations, wounds and fluids of the body cavities. Identification of candida, its species and antifungal sensitivity screening was done by Kirby Bauer’s disk diffusion method according to CLSI guide lines’ (M - 44 A2 series, 2009). Results: A significant majority, 80 (61.5%) of candidal strains were isolated from females with female to male ratio 8:5 and most of these isolates were obtained from high vaginal swabs (43.75%). Four candidal species (Candida albicans 80%, Candida tropicalis 10%, Candida glabrata 9.2% and Candida ciferrii 0.8%) were isolated from all positive specimens. Maximum number of the positive samples 52 (40%) were obtained from ICU patients. Sensitivity test of candidal positive samples revealed that commonly used azole antifungal drugs, fluconazole and voriconazole were highly resistant, with respective 57.7% and 70.8% resistance. Conclusion: Candidiasis is highly prevalent in our clinical set up and more frequently infecting females in comparison to males as most of the positive isolates were retrieved from HVS (high vaginal swabs). Still, C. albicans was found to be the most prevalent specie isolated among all candida samples. Our study also demonstrated that the resistance of most commonly prescribed antifungals, azoles have shown a rapid rise. Therefore, it is recommended that before prescription of antifungal drugs the clinicians should routinely recommend culture and sensitivity testing of samples taken from candida infected individuals.