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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 2001, p. 416-416, Vol. 39, No. 1
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.1.416.2001
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
First Report of Candida dubliniensis in the Middle
East
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LETTER |
The report this year of Polacheck et al. (2) of
isolation of Candida dubliniensis in Israel has come to our
attention. In it, the authors mention that theirs is "the first
report of identification of this novel species in the Middle East."
However, last year my colleagues and I reported (1)
"geographic areas from which C. dubliniensis has not
previously been reported," including Israel. In addition, we and our
Israeli collaborator reported these isolations in Israel at last
year's Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and
Chemotherapy (E. Lefler, M. J. McCullough, K. V. Clemons, and
D. A. Stevens, Abstr. 39th Intersci. Conf. Antimicrob. Agents
Chemother., abstr. 961, 1999).
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REFERENCES |
| 1.
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McCullough, M. J.,
K. V. Clemons, and D. A. Stevens.
1999.
Molecular epidemiology of the global and temporal diversity of Candida albicans.
Clin. Infect. Dis.
29:1220-1225[CrossRef][Medline].
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| 2.
|
Polacheck, I.,
J. Strahilevitz,
D. Sullivan,
S. Donnelly,
I. F. Salkin, and D. C. Coleman.
2000.
Recovery of Candida dubliniensis from non-human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients in Israel.
J. Clin. Microbiol.
38:170-174[Abstract/Free Full Text].
|
| | | | |
David A. Stevens
Department of Medicine
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and Stanford University
751 S. Bascom Ave.
San Jose, California 95128-2699
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| |
AUTHORS' REPLY |
In the January 2000 issue of the Journal of Clinical
Microbiology, we reported the recovery of Candida
dubliniensis isolates associated with carriage and infection in
five human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative patients in Israel
(8). The main purpose of this article was to highlight the
recovery of this recently described pathogenic yeast from
non-HIV-infected patients and from nonoral sites, since previous
reports in the literature suggested that C. dubliniensis was
primarily associated with oral carriage and infection in HIV-infected
individuals (2, 4, 7, 9-12). In our article, we also
stated that these isolates were the first C. dubliniensis
isolates reported from the Middle East. This statement was based on a
detailed review of the mainstream published literature immediately
prior to the submission of our article for publication in July 1999 (8), nearly 2 months before the publication of the poster
abstract authored by Dr. Stevens and colleagues at the 39th
Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy held
at San Francisco, 26 to 29 September 1999 (E. Lefler, M. J. McCullough, K. V. Clemons, and D. A. Stevens, Abstr. 39th
Intersci. Conf. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother., abstr. 961, 1999) and
more than 3 months before the publication in November 1999 of the
article by McCullough et al. referred to by Dr. Stevens. Numerous
studies from our laboratory and those of other researchers have
demonstrated that C. dubliniensis has a widespread
geographic distribution in HIV-infected individuals (2-4, 6, 7,
9, 12), and this organism is present in this subject cohort
worldwide. Taking all of these points into consideration, and as the
main purpose of our article was to highlight the recovery of C. dubliniensis from cases of infection in non-HIV-infected patients,
it seems trivial at this stage to argue over who first reported the
recovery of C. dubliniensis from a particular geographic
location. What is important now, given the growing number of reports of
septicemia caused by this organism (1, 5, 7), is to
determine the incidence of C. dubliniensis infection in
other immunocompromised groups and the incidence of nonoral carriage of
C. dubliniensis.
| |
REFERENCES |
| 1.
|
Brandt, M. E.,
L. H. Harrison,
M. Pass,
A. N. Sofair,
S. H. Huie,
R.-K. Li,
C. J. Morrison,
D. W. Warnock, and R. A. Hajjeh.
2000.
Candida dubliniensis fungemia: the first four cases in North America.
Emerg. Infect. Dis.
6:46-49[Medline].
|
| 2.
|
Coleman, D. C.,
D. J. Sullivan,
D. E. Bennett,
G. P. Moran,
H. J. Barry, and D. B. Shanley.
1997.
Candidiasis: the emergence of a novel species, Candida dubliniensis.
AIDS
11:557-567[CrossRef][Medline].
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| 3.
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Jabra-Rizk, M. A.,
A. A. M. A. Baqui,
J. I. Kelley,
W. A. Falkler, Jr.,
W. G. Merz, and T. F. Meiller.
1999.
Identification of Candida dubliniensis in a prospective study of patients in the United States.
J. Clin. Microbiol.
37:321-326[Abstract/Free Full Text].
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| 4.
|
Kirkpatrick, W. R.,
S. G. Revankar,
R. K. McAtee,
J. L. Lopez-Ribot,
A. W. Fothergill,
D. I. McCarthy,
S. E. Sanche,
R. A. Cantu,
M. G. Rinaldi, and T. F. Patterson.
1998.
Detection of Candida dubliniensis in oropharyngeal samples from human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients in North America by primary CHROMagar Candida screening and susceptibility testing of isolates.
J. Clin. Microbiol.
36:3007-3012[Abstract/Free Full Text].
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| 5.
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Meis, J. F. G. M.,
M. Ruhnke,
B. E. De Pauw,
F. C. Odds,
W. Siegert, and P. E. Verweij.
1999.
Candida dubliniensis in patients with chemotherapy-induced neutropenia and bone marrow transplantation.
Emerg. Infect. Dis.
5:150-153[Medline].
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| 6.
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Odds, F. C.,
L. Van Nuffel, and G. Dams.
1998.
Prevalence of Candida dubliniensis isolates in a yeast stock collection.
J. Clin. Microbiol.
36:2869-2873[Abstract/Free Full Text].
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| 7.
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Pinjon, E.,
D. Sullivan,
I. Salkin,
D. Shanley, and D. Coleman.
1998.
Simple, inexpensive, reliable method for differentiation of Candida dubliniensis from Candida albicans.
J. Clin. Microbiol.
36:2093-2095[Abstract/Free Full Text].
|
| 8.
|
Polacheck, I.,
J. Strahilevitz,
D. Sullivan,
S. Donnelly,
I. F. Salkin, and D. C. Coleman.
2000.
Recovery of Candida dubliniensis from non-human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients in Israel.
J. Clin. Microbiol.
38:170-174.
|
| 9.
|
Sullivan, D., and D. Coleman.
1998.
Candida dubliniensis: characteristics and identification.
J. Clin. Microbiol.
36:329-334[Free Full Text].
|
| 10.
|
Sullivan, D.,
K. Haynes,
J. Bille,
P. Boerlin,
L. Rodero,
S. Lloyd,
M. Henman, and D. Coleman.
1997.
Widespread geographic distribution of oral Candida dubliniensis strains in human immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals.
J. Clin. Microbiol.
35:960-964[Abstract].
|
| 11.
|
Sullivan, D. J.,
G. Moran,
S. Donnelly,
S. Gee,
E. Pinjon,
B. McCartan,
D. B. Shanley, and D. C. Coleman.
1999.
Candida dubliniensis: an update.
Rev. Iberoam. Micol.
16:72-76.
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| 12.
|
Sullivan, D. J.,
T. J. Westerneng,
K. A. Haynes,
D. E. Bennett, and D. C. Coleman.
1995.
Candida dubliniensis sp. nov.: phenotypic and molecular characterization of a novel species associated with oral candidosis in HIV-infected individuals.
Microbiology
141:1507-1521[Abstract/Free Full Text].
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| | | | |
David C. Coleman
Derek J. Sullivan
Microbiology Unit
Department of Oral Medicine and Pathology
School of Dental Science
University of Dublin
Trinity College
Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland
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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 2001, p. 416-416, Vol. 39, No. 1
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.1.416.2001
