In recent years, there has been a striking rise in the prevalence of opportunistic yeast infections, particularly those brought on by endogenous human commensal Candida species, which has raised severe concerns in the medical community all over the world. Although Candida albicans has historically been the most common infection- causing agent, other species, including C. tropicalis, C. glabrata, C. krusei, and C. parapsilosis, have also been linked to systemic and mucosal candidiasis. C. albicans's antifungal susceptibility profile and pathogenicity factors a need for accurate and quick species because of variety identity since this directly influences the decision of treatment (18).
It was a hospital based cross-sectional, quantitative type of study. 680 Samples were collected and processed in the Microbiology laboratory of BPKMCH, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal. The samples were collected from the patients attending OPD or admitted to the hospitals. Among them 280 (41.17%) were male and 400 (58.82%) were females. In our study, out of total 680 samples processed, 92.64%(n = 630) were reported no growth, while 7.3% (n = 50) had growth respectively.NACs 31(62%) was the main pathogen in our investigation when compared to C. ablican 19(38%) which is almost opposite to prior studies done by Maheronnaghsh et al. they found that out of 74 Candida isolates, with 75.5% Candida albicans and 24.5% non-albicans species (19). In our investigation, the prevalence of NACs 31(62%) was in the following order: C. glabrata 12(38.70%) C. tropicalis 11(35.48%) and C. krusei 8(25.80%) of the 680 total sample processed. This finding was contrariety to studies done by Maheronnaghsh et al which was found that C. tropicalis was the most common Non-Albicans species (9.4%), followed by C. krusei (7%), C. glabrata (5.4%), and C. kefyr (2.7%) (20). The most prevalent species of C. glabrata among NACs in clinical samples is an important finding of our investigation. Because of the high occurrence of increasing resistance of this species to commonly used antifungal drugs, this might be a serious threat.
Out of 50 Candida species, 24 (48%) of the urine samples, 10 (20%) of the BALsamples, 6 (12%) of the pus samples, 5(10%) of the sputum samples, and 4 (8%) of the blood samples had found in our study. which discovered that the majority of Candida species were present in urine samples. This finding is similar to the previous study by Patel et al, Out of 219, 78 (35.62%) of the urine samples, 10 (4.57%) of the pus, 20 (9.13%) of the BAL, 32 (14.61%) of the sputum, and 10 (4.57%) of the samples from other sites (21). Candida is demonstrated to be a prominent pathogen for UTI (urinary tract infection) under these circumstances because it has a stronger bond to the mucosal epithelial cells of the urinary tract than other fungi species (21).
Of the 50 positive isolated in our study, females had a greater prevalence of Candida infection than men 32(64%) than 18(36%); this finding was similar to the study done by Chung et al., which reported that 34829 positive sample female were higher in number 31707(91%) than male 3122(8.92%) (22). As a result, we conducted additional research and focused on candidiasis to determine whether Candida infection association in female cancer patient.
In our study age between 40 to 60 years has 22(44%) of Candida infection followed by 20–40 age group 16(32%), age group over 60 and under 20 has less number of Candida infection 10(20%), 2(4%).Those finding was similar to research by Chung et al, they reported that Candida infections were most common in patients 20–49(79.9%) 50–64(11.5%) and over 65 (8.80%) (23). This is because solid cancer such as breast cancer, followed by lungs cancer and colorectal cancer, is the most common cancer in people in age range 20–40 and 40–60 in our study (24).In our investigation Candida species Was mostly isolated from patient treating with chemotherapy 37(74%). Among the chemotherapy patients at C. glabrata, C. albicans, C. krusei, and C. tropicalis were found to be 11(29.7%), 10(27.0%), 8(21.6%), and
8(21.6%), respectively.In our study the higher number of isolate were C. glabrata followed by Candida albicans among chemotherapy patient. Whereas research done by Jabalameli Z et al on chemotherapy patient, which found that out of 12 Candida species C. albicans, 6 (50%); C. krusei, 3 (25%); and C. tropicalis, 3 (25%) were the three most common Candida species (20). That means Candida infection is higher in chemotherapy patient because chemotherapy-induced depression of innate immune cells and weakened epithelial barriers, which are the body's first-line defenses against fungal infections (25).
Out of 50 positive samples in our investigation, Voriconazole was shown to be the most effective against Candida, accounting for 48(96%) of instances. Itraconazole 31(62%) was next, followed by fluconazole 26(52%), and amphotericin B 23(46%). The least sensitive drugs were ketoconazole and clotrimazole, with sensitivity ratings of 13 (26%) and 9 (18%) respectively. Which was similar in a research conducted by Jangla et al found that out 60 Candida species voriconazole was sensitive to 55(91.66%) followed by Itraconazole 37(61.67%), Fluconazole 29(49.8%), and Ketoconazole 28(47%), respectively (26).
Our study showed Voriconazole is an effective drug 48(96%) where as 94% sensitive to Voriconazole was found in a similar study done by Badiee and Alborzi et al (27) .92% by Khan et al (28). 83% by Shafi FT et al (29) respectively. Voriconazole has broad-spectrum action against pathogenic yeasts, including isolates that are inherently fluconazole-resistant, such as Candida krusei. It has a high clinical efficacy in individuals with fluconazole-resistant Candida infections (30). Despite the fact that voriconazole was determined to be beneficial in the study, practicing the surveillance with a monitor is necessary.
In our study the drug shown to be the most resistant against Candida was clotrimazole, which accounted for 40(80%) of the resistance. Ketoconazole 35(70%), amphotericin B 27(54%) and fluconazole 22(44%) were next in line. Clotrimazole was reported to be the most resistant among C.glabrata at up to 11(91.7%) followed by C.kruseri 7(87.5%).Our findings significantly contrast with those of Mukesh Azad et al who found that just 15% of Candida isolated were resistant to clotrimazole (31) ,whereas khan M et a who found that just 59.5% of Candida isolates were resistant to clotrimazole (32). Clotrimazole is currently widely used as a first-line topical antifungal in immunocompromised patients for the prevention or treatment of mucosal candidiasis. Chronic and repeated usage of clotrimazole to treat immunocompromised people predisposes to developing resistance (33).
These findings suggest the rapid increase in resistance among Candida species for clotrimazole and need for speciation and antifungal susceptibility before treatment with antifungal drug.