Africa, Charlene W.J.Abrantes, Pedro Miguel dos Santos2017-01-302017-01-302017Africa, C.W.J. and Abrantes, P.M.dS. (2017). Candida antifungal drug resistance in sub-Saharan African populations: A systematic review . F1000Research, 5:28322046-1402doi: 10.12688/f1000research.10327.2http://hdl.handle.net/10566/2509http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.10327.2BACKGROUND: Candida infections are responsible for increased morbidity and mortality rates in at-risk patients, especially in developing countries where there is limited access to antifungal drugs and a high burden of HIV co-infection. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to identify antifungal drug resistance patterns within the subcontinent of Africa. METHODS: A literature search was conducted on published studies that employed antifungal susceptibility testing on clinical Candida isolates from sub-Saharan African countries using Pubmed and Google Scholar. RESULTS: A total of 21 studies from 8 countries constituted this review. Only studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa and employing antifungal drug susceptibility testing were included. Regional differences in Candida species prevalence and resistance patterns were identified. DISCUSSION: The outcomes of this review highlight the need for a revision of antifungal therapy guidelines in regions most affected by Candida drug resistance. Better controls in antimicrobial drug distribution and the implementation of regional antimicrobial susceptibility surveillance programmes are required in order to reduce the high Candida drug resistance levels seen to be emerging in sub-Saharan Africa.enCopyright: © 2017 Africa CWJ and Abrantes PMdS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Data associated with the article are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Zero "No rights reserved" data waiver (CC0 1.0 Public domain dedication)CandidaDrug resistanceAntifungalsArticle