Prevalence and Antifungal Susceptibility Patterns of Yeast Isolated from Wounds of Patients Attending University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

The increasing incidence of drug-resistant fungal infections has raised alarms in healthcare settings and underscores the need for this study, which investigated the antifungal susceptibility patterns of yeast from wound specimens. A total of twenty-one (21) wound specimens were collected from patients admitted in different wards at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) and were subjected to isolation of Candida sp., microscopic identification, biochemical test, virulence determination, and antifungal susceptibility test. Results of the study showed an overall 38.1% prevalence of Candida sp., with patients with diabetic wounds contributing the highest quota (52.4%) to the overall prevalence. Also, 87.5% of the isolates possessed germ tube, none of the isolates were haemolytic or produced biofilm, and the mean inhibitory zone of the isolates at 2.5mg/ml ranged between 0.0 ± 0.0 to 33.5 ± 2.1mm for ketoconazole, 00.0 ± 00.0 to 22.5 ± 2.1mm for fluconazole, while the mean inhibitory zone of the isolates at 1.25mg/ml ranged between 0.0 ± 0.0 to 2.5.0 ± 2.8mm for ketoconazole, Fluconazole, and Itraconazole respectively. Due to the high susceptibility of the yeast isolates to ketoconazole compared to other antifungal agents, ketoconazole is recommended as the drug of choice for treating these isolates. Based on findings in this study, it is concluded that Candida sp. had low prevalence in the study area, occurred more in wounds of diabetic patients, had germ tube but lacked haemolysis, did not produce biofilm, and were more susceptible to ketoconazole than fluconazole and itraconazole.