The Prevalence of fungal infections in children with hematologic malignancy in Ali-Asghar Children Hospital between 2005 and 2010

BACKGROUND: A fungal infection represents a growing problem in children with hematologic malignancies, during chemotherapy induced neutropenia. Fungal colonization is considered a major risk factor for subsequent fungal infections. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate prevalence of fungal infection among children admitted to hospital between 2005 and 2010 in Tehran, Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 617 hematological patients in the age range of neoteric to 19 years old were enrolled and 87 cases with invasive fungal infections were extracted from patients' files and documented. Diagnosis of fungal infections was based on the local biopsy and pathology for mucormycosis, blood culture, urine culture and clinical examination for candidasis and galactomannan for aspergillus. RESULTS: the mean age of cancer diagnosis was 6.33 years old and the mean age of fungal infection was 7.95 years old. The majority of the infections was caused by candidia spp (74.7%), followed by aspergillus spp (17.2%) and zygomycetes (11.5%). Among candidiasis patients, oral infection had the highest manifestation (92.3%) whereas in 10 of 15 patients with aspergillus, the infectious site was the lung. There was a significant association between mortality and the type of fungal infection (p <0.0001). CONCLUSION: Our finding suggests that there is a high rate of fungal infections in children receiving remission therapy for onco-hematology. These results help improve the management of these patients, however Further studies are needed.