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Outbreak of Candida parapsilosis in a neonatal intensive care unit: a health care workers source

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Abstract

Nosocomial neonatal candidiasis is a major problem in infants, which require intensive therapy. The subjects of the present study were three preterm infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of the General Hospital “Dr. Manuel Gea Gonzalez”. The infants developed Candida parapsilosis infection on the mean age of 13.6 day of life. Prior to fungemia, infants had received assisted ventilation and hyperalimentation through central venous catheter. Sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer gene ruled out other Candida species and revealed that the eight isolates were C. parapsilosis. The isolates were examined based on their molecular relation by random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis. The profiles allowed the identification of two main genotypes of C. parapsilosis as the outbreak cause and as a result of the cross-infection with health care workers’ hands. We conclude that C. parapsilosis commonly colonize through horizontal transmission due to the staff’s noncompliance of hand hygiene procedures.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Jorge Yañez and Eugenio López Bustos from the Unidad de Síntesis del Instituto de Biotecnología de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Cuernavaca, Morelos, México) for the oligonucleotide synthesis and sequencing services.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dirección de Investigación, Hospital General “Dr. Manuel Gea González”, Tlalpan, 14080, Mexico

    Rigoberto Hernández-Castro, Erika M. Carrillo-Casas & Elizabeth Álvarez-Verona

  2. Laboratorio Clínico, Hospital General “Dr. Manuel Gea González”, Tlalpan, 14080, Mexico

    Sara Arroyo-Escalante & David Moncada-Barrón

  3. Subdirección de Pediatría, Hospital General “Dr. Manuel Gea González”, Tlalpan, 14080, Mexico

    Lorena Hernández-Delgado, Patricia Torres-Narváez & Antonio Lavalle-Villalobos

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  1. Rigoberto Hernández-Castro
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  2. Sara Arroyo-Escalante
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  3. Erika M. Carrillo-Casas
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  4. David Moncada-Barrón
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  5. Elizabeth Álvarez-Verona
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  6. Lorena Hernández-Delgado
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  8. Antonio Lavalle-Villalobos
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Correspondence to Rigoberto Hernández-Castro.

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Hernández-Castro, R., Arroyo-Escalante, S., Carrillo-Casas, E.M. et al. Outbreak of Candida parapsilosis in a neonatal intensive care unit: a health care workers source. Eur J Pediatr 169, 783–787 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-009-1109-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-009-1109-7

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