Introduction
Due to an increasing number of predisposed patients and developments in medical interventions with increasing number of invasive medical procedures, some Candida species previously considered to be harmless commensals are emerging as causes of serious disease (1). Fungal eye infections are extremely rare, but they can be very harmful and may lead to blindness. Conjunctivitis is the most common eye infection and Candida species can cause conjunctivitis as a result of an eye injury or trauma; subsequently transmitted to the bloodstream (2, 3). Candida parapsilosis sensu lato is one of the common fungi causing conjunctivitis (1). C. parapsilosissensu lato is ubiquitous yeast in nature and found in all environments. It is the most frequently colonizing species, isolated from the subungual space of human hands; therefore, can spread nosocomially through hand carriage. It has been frequently associated with infections in newborns (1).
Candida metapsilosis as a recently describedCandida species is phenotypically and phylogenetically closely related to Candida parapsilosis species complex but is vary in geographic and anatomic prevalence, as well as in resistance characteristics (4). Using genotypic methods, the clonally related species of Candida parapsilosis complex was subsequently divided into three distinguish species: the more prevalent Candida parapsilosis sensu stricto , and two newly designate speciesCandida orthopsilosis and Candidametapsilosis (5, 6). It has been reported that 1–10% of theC. parapsilosis isolates identified through conventional biochemical tests are indeed C. metapsilosis or C. orthopsilosis (7).
We present a case of C. metapsilosis infection associated with conjunctivitis in a 40-day-old girl referred to Children’s Medical Center, undergoing heart surgery and admitted in Cardiac intensive care unit. To the best of our knowledge this was the first case of C .metapsilosis with no previously reported cases in Iran.