Open Journal of Medical Microbiology, 2021, 11, 32-46 https://www.scirp.org/journal/ojmm ISSN Online: 2165-3380 ISSN Print: 2165-3372 DOI: 10.4236/ojmm.2021.111003 Mar. 11, 2021 32 Open Journal of Medical Microbiology Prevalence, Species Distribution and Antifungal Susceptibility Profile of Candida Species Isolated from Bloodstream of Critical Care Unit Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Kenya Danait Andemichael Solomon 1* , Andrew K. Nyerere 1 , Alice Kanyua 2 , Caroline Wangari Ngugi 1 1 Department of Medical Microbiology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, 62000-00200, Nairobi, Kenya 2 Nairobi Hospital, 30026-00100, Nairobi, Kenya Abstract The upsurge of candidemia in the past years has been an immense encum- brance on public health and the number of deaths caused by candidemia par- ticularly in critical care unit patients is devastating. Candida species harbor a 30% - 60% mortality rate and compared to stable people or those with less se- rious illnesses, this ranges from 60% to 80% of those who are chronically ill patients. Grounded on a recent report from a tertiary care hospital in Kenya showing the emergence of previously unobserved species: Candida auris, this study aimed to determine the prevalence, species distribution, and antifungal susceptibility profile of candidemia in critical care unit patients of the hospit- al. 378 Critical Care Unit patients were enrolled for the study from January 2019 to January 2020. Positive archived isolates were sub-cultured using Sa- boraud Dextrose Agar. Candida species were identified utilizing API20C AUX and Vitek-2. Antifungal susceptibility testing was conducted using the Liofil- chem MIC Test strip. Out of 378 patients, thirty-one presented a positive culture for Candida species. The prevalence of Candidemia was 8.2% with 9 (29.03%) Candida auris, 8 (25.81%) Candida albicans, 6 (19.35%) Candida parapsilosis, 3 (9.68%) Candida famata, 3 (9.68%) Candida tropicalis, 1 (3.23%) Candida duobushaemolumonii, and 1 (3.23%) Candida lusitaniae. A resistance pattern to Fluconazole was observed among Candida auris and Candida parapsilosis, and resistance to Flucytosine was observed in Candida tropicalis, whereas susceptible MIC values were obtained for the other drugs. There is an increase in candidemia among critical care unit patients in the health facility posing a public health challenge. Moreover, the onset of new species Candida auris which is unprecedented in Kenya warrants enhanced infection control, and the uniform resistance of Candida auris, Candida pa- How to cite this paper: Solomon, D.A., Nyerere, A.K., Kanyua, A. and Ngugi, C.W. (2021) Prevalence, Species Distribution and Antifungal Susceptibility Profile of Candida Species Isolated from Bloodstream of Crit- ical Care Unit Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Kenya. Open Journal of Medi- cal Microbiology, 11, 32-46. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojmm.2021.111003 Received: January 30, 2021 Accepted: March 8, 2021 Published: March 11, 2021 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access