In vitro susceptibility of 137 Candida sp. isolates from HIV positive patients to several antifungal drugs.

Oropharyngeal candidiasis caused by various species of Candida is one of the most common infections in HIV seropositive or AIDS patients. Drug resistance among these yeasts is an increasing problem. We studied the frequency of resistance profile to fluconazole, itraconazole, ketoconazole, amphotericin B and terbinafine of 137 isolates of Candida sp. From HIV positive or AIDS patients with oropharyngeal candidiasis at Instituto de Inmunología, U.C.V. and the Hospital "Jose Ignacio Baldó", Caracas Venezuela, using the well diffusion susceptibility test (Magaldi et al.). We found that nearly 10% of C. albicans isolates were primarily fluconazole resistant, 45% of C. albicans isolates from patients with previous treatment were resistant to fluconazole, of which 93% showed cross-resistance to itraconazole, and even about 30% of C. tropicalis (n = 13) were resistant to fluconazole and/or itraconazole. To this respect, several recent reports have been described antifungal cross-resistance among azoles. Therefore, we consider that C. tropicalis should be added to the growing list of yeast in which antifungal drug resistance is common. This report could be useful for therapeutic aspect in AIDS patients with oral candidiasis.