title: Distribution and susceptibility to amphotericin B and fluconazole of Candida spp. isolated from Taiwan.
abstract: Susceptibilities to amphotericin B and fluconazole of 628 clinical yeast strains collected from 22 hospitals in Taiwan were determined. A total of 53 isolates (8.4%) were resistant to fluconazole. Each hospital had different resistance rate to fluconazole ranging from 0% to 24%. None of the 186 isolates from eight of the 22 hospitals was resistant to fluconazole. In contrast, isolates from nine of the remaining 14 hospitals had greater than 10% resistance rate to fluconazole. Consistently, 88.9% (8/9) fluconazole-resistant C. albicans isolates were from hospitals having a high resistance rate to fluconazole. The prevalence of various Candida spp. in each hospital was different. A positive association was found between the prevalence of C. tropicalis and the resistance rate to fluconazole for individual hospitals. Although only three isolates (0.5%) were resistant to amphotericin B, a co-resistance to both amphotericin B and fluconazole was observed, which highlights the emerging problem of drug resistance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: Y L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Y A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lo
mesh_terms: D000666:Amphotericin B / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002175:Candida / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D041022:Candida tropicalis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000472:pathogenicity; D002177:Candidiasis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D015725:Fluconazole / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents; D000666:Amphotericin B; D015725:Fluconazole