Experience of treating cases at a general hospital in the state of Qatar.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

So far there have been no studies on in Qatar. This study aimed to describe the clinical spectrum and outcome of infection in patients admitted to a general hospital in Qatar.

METHODS

We conducted this descriptive observational study in a general hospital in Qatar. We have involved all patients with infection and colonization admitted to a general hospital from December 2018 to August 2019.

RESULTS

We identified 13 patients with confirmed infection/colonization, of which five cases represented an actual infection, while the remaining eight cases were considered as colonization. The mean age of the patients with infection was 76.6 ± 8.4 years, while the mean age of the patients with colonization was 66.4 ± 24.7 years. Among the individuals clinically infected with , two had urinary tract infections, one had candidemia, one acquired soft tissue infection, and one had a lower respiratory tract infection. All strains of were susceptible to echinocandins, flucytosine, and posaconazole while resistance to fluconazole and amphotericin B. Of the patients with infection who received systemic antifungal therapy, three (60%) died during antifungal therapy.

CONCLUSION

Our study showed that can cause a wide variety of invasive infections, including bloodstream infection, urinary tract infection, skin infection, and lower respiratory tract infections, especially in critically ill patients. In addition, our isolates showed resistance to the most common antifungal agents such as fluconazole and amphotericin B.