Epidemiological profile of funguria in an University Hospital in Oujda, Morocco

The presence of yeasts in the urine is not synonymous with urinary tract infectionsinceit can result insimple colonization or contamination. Regarding this, it is required to further clarify the epidemiological profile of funguria. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to establish the epidemiology of funguriainthe Mohammed VI Teaching Hospital of Oujda, Morocco.

This retrospective studywas conducted onall urine samples sent for cytobacteriological examination to amicrobiology laboratoryover a period of 28 months(i.e., from March 2016 to June 2018). After the removal of duplicates, the urinesampleswere treated according to the recommendations of the medical microbiology standards.

A total of15,165 urine sampleswerecollected. Urinary colonization accounted for 4.94% (n=749) of cases. The infections of the urinary tract accounted for 5.35% (n=811) of cases. Microbial isolates (n=1,669) in colonization and urinary tract infections were dominated by bacteria (93.47%, n=1,560). Furthermore, the yeasts accounted for 6.53% (n=109) of the isolates. Candidaalbicanswas isolated from56.88% (n=62) of funguriacases. Theriskfactors forfunguriain our series wereessentially old age, admission tointensive care unit, and broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy.

The current level of knowledge about the clinical situations leading tofunguriawith the improvement and popularization of efficient identification techniques for yeasts other than C. albicans should redress the epidemiology of funguria.This should allowtheknowledgeablesocieties to establish the rules of interpretingthecytobacteriological examination of the urine in case of funguria, as for bacteriuria.