epidemiology and molecular identification of mixed yeast isolates in malaysia: a way forward

Background and purpose: invasive candidiasis is one of the most common systemic mycoses, and studies have shown mixed yeast infections. malaysia lacks mixed yeast culture data. materials and methods: yeast isolates were collected in sultan abdul halim hospital, north malaysia, from october 2020 to october 2021. chromogenic candida differential agar media and pcr-rflp were used to identify yeast species. results: a total of 206 yeast isolates were collected from different body sites of patients. the majority of the yeast isolates (n=104) were obtained from the urine. other isolates were extracted from blood (n=52), vaginal swabs (n=45), ear discharge (n=2), tracheal aspirate (n=2), tissue (n=2), skin (n=1), nail (n=1), sputum (n=1), and cerebrospinal fluid (n=1). in total, 200 yeast samples were identified as single species, and six isolates were a mixture of candida species.conclusion: malaysia lacks accurate epidemiological data on mixed yeast infections. we identified all samples to the species level, including mixed yeast cultures, using the mspi enzyme and pcr-rflp.