Vaibhav Misra1, Himanshi Bansal2, Sanjay Singh Kirar3
In the neonatal intensive care units, infection with uncommon organisms is an increasing problem. Due to advances in medical and surgical management, an increase in nosocomial fungal infection rate has been observed, with Candida species being the most common nosocomial fungal pathogen. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 462 clinically suspected cases of septicaemia from neonatal ICU in Kamla Raja Paediatrics Hospital, Gwalior were studied for one year from November 2014 to October 2015. Blood samples were aseptically collected in duplicate into Brain Heart Infusion broth and incubated at 37°C up to 05 days and further another 05 days. Subcultures were made on Blood agar and MacConkey agar on regular interval. Both bacteria and yeast were isolated. The yeasts were studied further for identification and susceptibility as per the standard procedures. RESULTS Out of 103 culture positive cases, bacteria were isolated from 69 cases (66.7 %) and yeast from 34 cases (33.3 %). Among yeasts, C. tropicalis was isolated from 21 cases (61.76 %), C. albicans from 6 (17.6 %), C. glabrata from 3 (8.8 %), C. parapsilosis and C. kefyr were isolated from 2 cases (5.9 %) each. CONCLUSION Neonatal candidaemia is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. C. tropicalis has been reported as the predominant species involved in the cases of fungaemia.
