Prevalence of Fungemia in Pediatric Patients with Febrile Neutropenia

Background: Increasing use of different chemotherapy regimens, organ transplants, etc., has led to the increasing number of neutropenic patients. Overall, 10% of patients affected by cancer who are under treatment with anticancer drugs, regardless of the tumor type, are susceptible to febrile neutropenia. The study was performed to evaluate the frequency of bloodstream fungal infections in pediatric patients with febrile neutropenia in Sayed Al-Shohada Hospital (Cancer Referral Center in Isfahan) in 2010–2012. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on pediatric patients with febrile neutropenia who were referred to Sayed Al-Shohada Hospital (Cancer Referral Center in Isfahan) in 2010–2012. Blood samples were obtained from all the patients and were loaded into Bactec 9050 blood culture instruments (Bectone Dickinson, Baltimore, Md., USA), and organisms responsible for causing fever were detected. Results: Sixty-seven patients (51.3 males, 48.7 females) with a mean age of 12.3 ± 15.8 years were included. The blood cultures of 48 patients (71.6%) were negative. Seven samples of the isolates (10.4%) were fungi, and twelve of them (18%) were bacteria. Thus, the prevalence of fungal infection was 10.4%. Conclusion: Due to the high relative prevalence of fungal infections in our study, it is necessary to take precautions for fungal infection prevention and choose the best way management to obtain optimal results in these patients.