Distribution and susceptibility to amphotericin B and fluconazole of Candida spp. isolated from Taiwan.

Susceptibilities to amphotericin B and fluconazole of 628 clinical yeast strains collected from 22 hospitals in Taiwan were determined. A total of 53 isolates (8.4%) were resistant to fluconazole. Each hospital had different resistance rate to fluconazole ranging from 0% to 24%. None of the 186 isolates from eight of the 22 hospitals was resistant to fluconazole. In contrast, isolates from nine of the remaining 14 hospitals had greater than 10% resistance rate to fluconazole. Consistently, 88.9% (8/9) fluconazole-resistant C. albicans isolates were from hospitals having a high resistance rate to fluconazole. The prevalence of various Candida spp. in each hospital was different. A positive association was found between the prevalence of C. tropicalis and the resistance rate to fluconazole for individual hospitals. Although only three isolates (0.5%) were resistant to amphotericin B, a co-resistance to both amphotericin B and fluconazole was observed, which highlights the emerging problem of drug resistance.