Aislamiento de Candida spp. y otras levaduras en el personal que labora en áreas críticas del Hospital San Juan de Dios

justification and aim: critically ill patients are more susceptible than the general population to opportunistic fungal infections. health workers could be a potential infectious focus to these patients. thus in this investigation we report the isolation of yeast from the hands and oral cavity in a group of 77 employees of the san juan de dios hospital from services where infecctionsdue to these fungi had previously been reported. methods: samples from oral cavity and both hands were taken from 77 individuals. each sample was platted into sabouraud′s dextrose agar and mycosel agar. each yeast isolate was analyzed for growth capacity at 37°c, cycloheximide resistance, germ tube formation, phospholipase and proteinase production. further, in vitro susceptibility testing of each isolate to fluconazol was performed using a microdilution method. results: a 72.7% yeast positivity was found in all samples taken. candida parapsilosis was the most frequent isolate, followed by c. albicans and c. famata. the ward with the greatest positivity was surgery 3 (83.3%), followed by intensive care unit (71.4%) and neonatology (58%). conclusion: these findings suggest that strict aseptic handling of patients should be observed to avoid horizontal transmission of yeasts in these wards. similar studies should be conduced in others hospitals.