Antifungal drug susceptibility of Candida albicans

To determine the susceptibility of clinical isolates of Candida albicans and to establish the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) to commonly used antifungal drugs.

Laboratory based experiment.

Mbagathi District Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya.

Candida albicans isolated between 1998 and 2000 from the sputa of HIV/AIDS patients and throat swabs of children with acute respiratory infections (ARI).

Susceptibility to amphotericin B, clotrimazole, nystatin, and 5-fluorocytosine was done using agar dilution method (NCCLS 1997).

Among the ARI isolates 29.3% and among HIV isolates 22.4% had MIC>0.5 microg/ml to amphotericin B. Over 80% of the ARI isolates had MICs > 1 microg/ml to clotrimazole. The MIC range of most isolates to nystatin was 4-16 microg/ml while most isolates were susceptible to 5-fluorocytosine. There were no significant differences in susceptibility between ARI and HIV isolates to commonly used antifungal drugs.

Although fungal resistance has not been extensively studied, susceptibility tests showed some Candida albicans have increased MICs to commonly used antifungal drugs. The results call for further investigations on fungal resistance especially in the context of opportunistic infections in HIV/AIDS.