Overview on common fungal infections, recovered in Baghdad teaching hospitals in five years

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the burden of invasive fungal infections , recovered in a group of patients who were non responsive to antibiotic therapy and have been referred from some Iraqi hospitals in five years interval in a clinical and microbiological scope.
 Methods: 
 Samples were collected during from the 25th of May 2012 to 5th of November 2017 enrolled 1444 Iraqi adult patients who referred by hematology-oncology unit, medical wards, bone marrow transplant unit and respiratory care unit with some other cases received from other hospitals in the capital Baghdad. samples from any infected sites were sent to the central medical mycology lab to identify the causative fungi using wet mount, direct examination, culture and sensitivity tests, biochemical and some serological examinations as galactomannan testing for invasive aspergillosis and PCR test to detect some pathological properties of a group of Aspergillus species.
 
 Results
 Although (26,6%) 387 samples revealed no fungal isolates most of them were of blood culture. The commonest fungus noticed in all samples was Cryptococcus neoformans in the first place 646 samples (38.63%), the next was Candida albicans and non albicans in 594 samples (35.52%).Aspergillus species in 252 samples (15.07%) ,Penicillium 27 samples (1.61%) ,Gieotrichum candidum15 samples (0.89),Zygomycetes and Rhizopus 20 (1.18% ),Trichosporon and Rhodotorula glutinis yeasts 14 )0.83%(, Sporothrixes schenkii 5(0.29%),2(0.11%) two cases of systemic mycosis one Histoplasma capsulatum and the other is Coccidiomycosis immitus .
 Conclusions: The incidence of fungal infection is greatly increased in Iraq in relation to global and local risk factors with tendency for multiple fungal isolates in one patient. represents a major health problem in a wide variety of disease conditions ranging from hematology oncology to uncontrolled diabetic cases. with high case of fatality among hematological malignancies with neutropenia.