In vitro activities of antifungal drugs against yeasts isolated from blood cultures and moulds isolated from various clinically significant sites in Singapore.

INTRODUCTION

Fungaemia carries with it high mortality rates and appropriate as well as timely antifungal therapy has been shown to be life saving.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

We studied the invitro activities of antifungal agents using the Etest method, against 100 Candida isolates from blood cultures, 10 Cryptococcus isolates from blood or cerebrospinal fluid and 50 mould isolates from various clinically significant sites of patients in Singapore General Hospital, from June 2004 to December 2006.

RESULTS

Overall, the yeasts appeared to have low minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for all the 5 antifungal drugs tested except for fluconazole. The overall high MIC90 values of the moulds against the azoles were largely attributed to the non-Aspergillus moulds. Posaconazole, itraconazole, voriconazole and caspofungin appear effective against local strains of Aspergillus species, although there are no interpretive breakpoints.

CONCLUSIONS

The results show that the local fungal strains studied appear to be susceptible to the usual antifungal drugs recommended in the literature.