Study of candida species from suspected cases of fungal urinary tract infections amongst pediatric patients

Fungal UTI is one of the important factor in mortality and morbidity in hospitalised patients especially in paediatric population. Our study was aimed to report the prevalence of Candida spp. amongst suspected cases of fungal UTI and determine its antifungal susceptibility profile. A total of 63 (31.5%) Candida spp. were isolated out of 200 urine specimens collected from pediatric patients. In our study, Non-albicans Candida species (57.14%) were the predominant isolates compared to Candida albicans (42.86%). Non-albicans Candida demonstrated high resistance to azoles. Therefore, it can be concluded that non-albicans Candida species has emerged as an important cause of urinary tract infections. Their isolation from clinical specimen can no longer be ignored as a nonpathogenic isolate nor can it be dismissed as a contaminant, since Candiduria may even be a marker of disseminated candidiasis.