PREVALÊNCIA DE INFECÇÕES FÚNGICAS EM PACIENTES COM COVID 19 EM UNIDADE DE TERAPIA INTENSIVA DE UM HOSPITAL DE ENSINO: UM ESTUDO COMPARATIVO PRÉ PANDÊMICO VERSUS TRANSPANDÊMICO

Abstract

The severity of symptoms in individuals with COVID 19 and its complex treatment, including the use of immunosuppressive drugs, may have favored the increase in the number of opportunistic infections, worldwide, including fungal infections. This research compares and describes the increase in fungal infections in hospitalized individuals, the etiological agents and isolation sites, in the intensive care unit of a teaching hospital in Campo Grande MS, in the years 2019 to 2021, the etiological agents and isolation sites. In cases of dissemination of the fungus in the bloodstream (blood culture), we sought to identify the frequency of deaths. Results of fungal culture tests were collected from patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit - Adult ICU in 2019, pre-COVID 19 pandemic period, and from patients admitted to the ICU in 2020 and 2021. Among the Data collected are: number of cultures performed, positive cultures, isolation site, fungus identified, age group and evolution of patients with bloodstream infection (fungemia). Our results document that there was an increase in the number of colonization by Candida species in respiratory, urinary and bloodstream samples. The most isolated agents in the three sites analyzed were Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis and Candida glabrata and Candida from the parapsilosis complex. Of the patients who had a positive blood culture for fungus, 15 died, of which 11 patients were diagnosed with COVID 19.

Descriptors: Coinfection; Sepsis; COVID-19; Candidemia