The Capability of Clinical Laboratories in Kenya to Diagnose Fungal Infections and as Well Conduct Antifungal Drug Susceptibility Testing on the Isolates

Abstract

Antifungal drug resistance seems to be growing at a first rate and the life span of the current antifungal drugs may soon be shorter than its shelf life. The capacity to detect resistance is being hampered by the lack of the means to test and also by the misconceived perception that most fungi are still susceptible to current antifungals drugs, resulting in the abdication of the duty to test and profile the susceptibility patterns. In view of this, the study aimed at determining if clinically isolated fungi are exhibiting drug resistance patterns by subjecting a few yeast forms of fungi, Candida albicans isolated during a routine urinalysis procedure on subjects with vulvovaginitis attending a medical camp, to antifungal sensitivity tests. As observed, out of thirty two (32) urine cultures, ten (10) were confirmed to contain Candida albicans . Out of the 10 Candida albicans isolates, three (3) of them exhibited signs of drug resistance to fluconazole and clotrimazole; hence the estimated resistance rate is about 30%. In conclusion a significant population of Candida albicans are clinically resistance to both fluconazole and clotrimazole and we need to strengthen the capacity of our clinical laboratories to conduct antifungal drug susceptibility testing.