Abstract:
In the recent years the number of serious opportunistic yeast infections,
particularly in immunocompromised patients has increased significantly. The
increased incidence of these infections has paralleled the emergence of HIV/AIDS
pandemic that result in lowered resistance of the host. Azole antifungal agents has
been extensively used in the management of these yeast infections. Candida
albicans is one of the most frequently isolated yeasts in clinical laboratories and
accounts for up to 80 % of the yeasts recovered from sites of infection. The study
was set out to determine antifungal susceptibility of clinical isolates of Candida
albicans and to establish the Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MIC) to
Fluconazole, Clotrimazole, Nystatin and Amphotericin B. Laboratory based
experiment were conducted at Mycology Laboratory, Kenya Medical Research
Institute, Nairobi, Kenya. One hundred and thirty clinical isolates of Candida
albicans were subjected to antifungal susceptibility testing. Susceptibility to
Fluconazole, Clotrimazole, Nystatin and Amphotericin B was done using Broth
Microdilution Technique with reference to Clinical laboratory Standard Institute
(CLSI). The investigations showed that 16/130 (12.3 %) of the Candida albicans
isolates were resistant (MIC ≥ 64 μg/ml) to fluconazole, 121/130 (93.1 %) of the
isolates had an MIC ≤ 1 μg/ml to Amphotericin B. Of the isolates 51/130 (39.2 %)
had MIC> 1 μg/ml to clotrimazole whereas 109/130 (83.8 %) of the isolates had
MIC ≤ 1 μg/ml to nystatin. The study showed elevated MICs among Candida
albicans isolates to fluconazole and clotrimazole and calls for constant antifungal
resistance surveillance especially in the context of fluconazole maintenance
treatment for opportunistic infections in HIV/AIDS.
