APPARENT INCREASE IN FREQUENCY OF INFECTIONS INVOLVING TORULOPSIS GLABRATA

Abstract

Occasionally, rare yeasts of medical significance are sent to me for identification. Among these have been three strains of Torulopsis glabrata (Anderson) Lodder and De Vries in the years 1938 to 1956. Since March, 1956, six additional strains of this species have been received, all from human patients including two with yeast septicemia. The well-known increase in infection caused by Candida albicans following the extensive use of antibiotics¹suggests a possible similar relationship between infection by T. glabrata and the use of antibiotics. The object of this report is to describe how this species can be recognized. When it can be identified with certainty by medical technicians, all failures and successes in treatment of patients infected by it can be referred to a definite name rather than being accredited to an unknown yeast or, worse yet, to the wrong species. At present the yeast is so little known that