Abstract
Candida glabrata is an infrequent cause of candidemia in Brazilian public hospitals. We investigated putative differences in the epidemiology of candidemia in institutions with different sources of funding. Prospective laboratory-based surveillance of candidemia was conducted in seven private and two public Brazilian tertiary care hospitals. Among 4,363 episodes of bloodstream infection, 300 were caused by Candida spp. (6.9%). Incidence rates were significantly higher in public hospitals, i.e., 2.42 vs. 0.91 episodes per 1,000 admissions (P< 0.01). Patients in private hospitals were older, more likely to be in an intensive care unit and to have been exposed to fluconazole before candidemia. Candida parapsilosis was more frequently recovered as the etiologic agent in public (33% vs. 16%, P< 0.001) hospitals, whereas C. glabrata was more frequently isolated in private hospitals (13% vs. 3%, P < 0.001). Fluconazole resistance among C. glabrata isolates was more frequent in private hospitals (76.5% vs. 20%, P = 0.02). The 30-day mortality was slightly higher among patients in public hospitals (53% vs. 43%, P = 0.10). Candida glabrata is an emerging pathogen in private institutions and in this setting, fluconazole should not be considered as a safe option for primary therapy of candidemia.
Acknowlegements
We are very grateful to United Medical and Gilead that provided unconditional funding to partially support this study.
Declaration of interest: Dr Colombo and Dr Nucci have received research and educational grants from Astellas, MSD and Pfizer in the last two years. The other authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and the writing of the paper.
This paper was first published online on Early Online on 4 July 2012.