Pattern Of Fungal Colonization In Critically Ill Pediatric Patients In Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Of Zagazig University Hospitals

Critically ill pediateric patients are immune suppressed, invasively monitored and exposed to aggressive medical interventions that put them at increased risk of infectious complications while residing in ICU.Fungal pathogens were an increasing important cause of infection among patients in intensive care unit. The challenge for the future in the management of pediatric nosocomial infections includes improving ways to measure nosocomial infection rates in infants and children, investigating new and multiresistant pathogens, controlling antibiotic use, and developing strategies effective for different providers of pediatric care.In our study, we screened for colonization by fungal strains in patients admitted to pediatric intensive care unit in Zagazig University Hospital and for determining the possible associated factors.This study was conducted on critically ill pediatric patient, 65 having a PICU stay of more than 3 days and fulfilling other exclusion criteria were enrolled in the study from May 2010 to November 2010. every patient was examined and sampled at first day of admission and after three days of admission .The ages of our patients ranged from 41 days to 12ys. Most of studied cases (35.4%) were below 1 year of age & (72.3%) of the total number of patients studied were female and only (27.7%) were male.