Abstract
We conducted a four-year (2003–2006) retrospective study of yeasts recovered in a hospital laboratory in the centre of Portugal to evaluate the epidemiology of yeast infections. Clinical isolates and data were gathered from 751 patients corresponding to 906 episodes of yeast infection. The isolates were first identified using classical and commercial methods, routinely employed at the hospital laboratory. We then re-identified the same isolates using RFLP of the ITS 5.8S rRNA gene and sequence of the D1/D2 domain of the 26S rRNA gene. Candida parapsilosis isolates were re-identified using the Ban I digestion of the SADH gene. C. albicans was the most frequently isolated of the yeasts found in the analysed specimens, with an overall incidence of 69.6% and then in deceasing order, C. glabrata, C. tropicalis, C. parapsilosis and C. krusei. C. parapsilosis was most frequently recovered from younger patients, decreasing with age, while C. glabrata occurrence increased with age. We found an increased number of cases of fungemia per 100,000 people per year, reaching a maximum of 4.4 during 2006.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge Helena Ferreira, Maria Trindade Marques, Henrique Jorge Marques and Marta Mota for technical support. The authors acknowledge the Novexem Portugal for helping in the statistical analysis. This work was partially granted by a financed project by Agência de Inovação – MCTES (Projecto PYM).
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.