European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Candida is ubiquitous in nature and is found on inanimate objects, in foods and on animals.
They are commensals of humans. Most Candida infections are endogenous in origin. They
inhabit the gastrointestinal tract including the mouth and oropharynx, the female genital tract,
and the skin. Health care workers do show carriage on the skin. The transformation of
Candida from a commensal to a pathogen depends on the decreased host resistance, local
ecology or increased virulence of the organism. The samples received for routine culture and
sensitivity like, pus, sputum, Urine, blood, vaginal swab, endotracheal aspirates, endotracheal
tube tips, CVC tips, IJC tips, Lumbar drain tip and sterile body fluids like CSF, pleural fluid,
ascitic fluid etc. at the Microbiology laboratory were subjected to standard culture and
sensitivity tests. The AUX method could not detect C. kefyr identified on WB method.
Instead C. kefyr was identified as C. tropicalis. Similarly one of the isolates of C. parapsilosis
was identified as C. tropicalis by WB method. None of the species of Candida except C.
krusei were resistant to fluconazole. While a majority of the C. krusei isolates (78.1%) were
resistant to fluconazole, there were no resistant strains observed for voriconazole in any of the
112 isolates.