Candida dubliniensis: epidemiology and phenotypic methods for identification

Candida dubliniensis is an emerging pathogen first described in 1995, which shares many phenotypic features with Candida albicans and therefore may be misidentified in microbial laboratories. Despite various phenotypic techniques described in the literature to differentiate the two species, the correct identification of C. dubliniensis remains problematic due to phenotypic similarities between these species. Thus, as the differences between both are best characterized at genetic levels, several molecular methods have been proposed to provide a specific and rapid identification of this species. Epidemiological studies have shown that C. dubliniensis is prevalent throughout the world and it is primarily associated with oral carriage and oropharyngeal infections in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, data acquired from its isolation from other healthy and immunocompromised patients are variable, and there is still no real consensus on the epidemiological relevance of this species. In this article, we review the various phenotypic methods used in the identification of C. dubliniensis and the epidemiological impact of this new species.