Evidence for a pseudo-outbreak of Candida guilliermondii fungemia in a university hospital in Brazil

Servolo Medeiros, Eduardo Alexandrino; Lott, Timothy J.; Colombo, Arnaldo Lopes; Godoy, Patricio; Coutinho, Ana Paula; Braga, Monica Santos; Nucci, Marcio; Brandt, Mary E.

Abstract

Fungal infections due to Candida species represent an important cause of nosocomial bloodstream infections. We report a large pseudo-outbreak of Candida guifflermondii fungernia that occurred in a university hospital in Brazil. C. guilliermondii was identified in 64 (43%) of the 149 blood samples drawn between June 2003 and July 2004. The samples were from patients in different wards of the hospital but concentrated in pediatric units. None of the patients had clinical signs of fungernia, and observational analysis revealed errors in the collection of blood samples. During the investigation of the pseudo-outbreak, C. guilliermondii was isolated from environmental surfaces and from the skin and nails of members of the nursing team. Through a subtyping analysis it was found that some of the nonpatient isolates were highly related to the patient isolates, and all the patient isolates were highly related. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the pseudo-outbreak was from a limited number of common sources. The adoption of intervention measures was effective in resolving the outbreak, supporting the hypothesis that the outbreak was due to poor techniques of drawing blood samples for culture.

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Título según WOS: ID WOS:000245071500037 Not found in local WOS DB
Título de la Revista: JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY
Volumen: 45
Número: 3
Editorial: AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY
Fecha de publicación: 2007
Página de inicio: 942
Página final: 947
DOI:

10.1128/JCM.01878-06

Notas: ISI