The epidemiology of non‐Candida yeast isolated from blood: The Asia Surveillance Study

BACKGROUND: Current guidelines recommend echinocandins as first‐line therapy for candidemia. However, several non‐Candida yeast are non‐susceptible to echinocandins (echinocandin non‐susceptible yeast, ENSY), including Cryptococcus, Geotrichum, Malassezia, Pseudozyma, Rhodotorula, Saprochaete, Sporobolomyces and Trichosporon. In laboratories that are not equipped with rapid diagnostic tools, it often takes several days to identify yeast, and this may lead to inappropriate presumptive use of echinocandins in patients with ENSY fungemia. The aim of this study was to determine the distribution of ENSY species during a 1‐year, laboratory surveillance programme in Asia. METHODS: Non‐duplicate yeast isolated from blood or bone marrow cultures at 25 hospitals in China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand were analysed. Isolates were considered to be duplicative if they were obtained within 7 days from the same patient. RESULTS: Of 2155 yeast isolates evaluated, 175 (8.1%) were non‐Candida yeast. The majority of non‐Candida yeast were ENSY (146/175, 83.4%). These included Cryptococcus (109 isolates), Trichosporon (23), Rhodotorula (10) and Malassezia (4). The proportion of ENSY isolates (146/2155, 6.7%) differed between tropical (India, Thailand and Singapore; 51/593, 8.6%) and non‐tropical countries/regions (China, Hong Kong and Taiwan; 95/1562, 6.1%, P = 0.038). ENSY was common in outpatient clinics (25.0%) and emergency departments (17.8%) but rare in intensive care units (4.7%) and in haematology‐oncology units (2.9%). Cryptococcus accounted for the majority of the non‐Candida species in emergency departments (21/24, 87.5%) and outpatient clinics (4/5, 80.0%). CONCLUSIONS: Isolation of non‐Candida yeast from blood cultures was not rare, and the frequency varied among medical units and countries.