Abstract
POSTER SESSION 2, SEPTEMBER 22, 2022, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM: BACKGROUND: Candida is responsible for roughly 96% of all opportunistic mycoses and is a major cause of bloodstream infections (BSIs). The potential for nosocomial spread of Candidemia infections is a new concern concurrent with the rapid expansion of intensive care facilities for COVID-19 patients. With the pandemic of COVID-19 now moving into 2022, it is understood that critically ill COVID-infected patients in the ICUs are commonly infected with highly resistant bacterial and fungal infections. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the incidence rates and compare the epidemiology of candidemia in COVID infected and non-infected patients requiring ICU care. METHODOLOGY: In this 2-year retrospective multicentric study, we present the findings on candidemia from the Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) surveillance network which includes 40 hospitals across India and with special emphasis on differences in the epidemiology of Candidemia in COVID infected and non-infected patients in the pre-COVID (April 2019 to April 2020) and COVID times (April 2020 to April 2021) across this network. We compared the incidence of candidemia between COVID infected and non-infected patients using Poisson regression analysis. Chi-squared (χ2) test was used to test for differences in variables such as gender and 14-day mortality between the patients and Wilcoxon rank-sum (Mann-Whitney) test was used to compare median between the patients. RESULTS: A total of 628 patients with candidemia were screened from HAI Surveillance Database where 68 patients are COVID infected and 560 non-infected patients from both pre-COVID and COVID periods. Incidence of Candida-associated BSI increased significantly from 1.47 (95% CI, 1.35-1.60) to 3.08 (95% CI, 2.38-3.92) in non-infected and COVID-infected patients respectively, while in CLABSI the rates increased from 2.62 (95% CI, 2.34-2.92) in non-infected to 5.99 (95% CI, 4.30-8.12) in COVID-infected patients. COVID infected patients in the age group (>60 years) were significantly more prone to candidemia compared to non-infected patients. During the COVID period, the maximum time for candidemia to develop (from the time of ICU admission) in COVID-infected patients was shorter (<65 days) than in non-infected patients (>90 days). CONCLUSION: We observed an increased incidence of candidemia in hospitalized patients during the COVID period compared with the same during the pre-COVID period.