Prevalence of Candida dubliniensis among cancer patients in Kuwait: a 5-year retrospective study

Despite close genetic and phenotypic relationship of Candida dubliniensis with Candida albicans, its role in human disease is mostly restricted to oral colonisation, particularly among HIV-infected patients. The prevalence of C. dubliniensis in association with other disease conditions has been infrequently reported. In this study, we present data on the prevalence of C. dubliniensis among yeast species isolated from cancer patients over a 5-year period. A total of 1445 yeast isolates recovered from respiratory specimens, blood, urine and oral swabs were analysed. Candida dubliniensis isolates were provisionally identified by phenotypic methods and their identity was further confirmed by species-specific amplification and/or sequencing of internally transcribed spacer region of rDNA. Antifungal susceptibility for fluconazole was determined by Etest. The number of isolates identified as C. dubliniensis, C. albicans and other yeast species were 71 (4.9%), 862 (59.6%) and 512 (35%) respectively. All the C. dubliniensis isolates originated from respiratory (5.9%) or oral (3.2%) specimens with an overall prevalence of 4.9%, and were found to be susceptible to fluconazole. The isolation of C. dubliniensis from respiratory or oral specimens and not from blood or urine specimens suggests that this species has preference to colonise these sites of human body.