Dual-antibiotic MAC (DAM) medium: A simple Candida auris screening medium suitable for routine laboratories.

Dual-antibiotic MAC (DAM) medium recovered all 49 Candida auris isolates from 130 clinical samples at 40°C, achieving 100% sensitivity and specificity.

• Why it matters: Routine screening for multidrug-resistant Candida auris is difficult, and laboratories need an accessible medium that reduces bacterial overgrowth while maintaining detection accuracy.
• What they did: DAM was created by modifying MacConkey agar with gentamicin and chloramphenicol, then tested on ATCC strains, C. auris isolates (Clades I–II), carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacilli, and validated using 130 clinical samples versus MAC, SDA, and SCA.
• The result: At 35°C, 43 isolates were recovered (sensitivity 87.8%), and bacterial contamination on DAM was lower at 40°C (26.9%) than 35°C (33.1%) and than SDA (51.5%) and MAC (68.5%); DAM costs ~1.7 RMB per plate and stores at 4°C for up to 30 days.

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