Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of microorganisms causing bacteremia and fungemia in pediatric oncology patients

The purpose of our research was to know the frequency of microorganisms causing bacteremia and/or fungemia in oncology patients from Hospital de Ninos de Cordoba, as well as to describe the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of bacteria isolated from January 2006 to April 2007. A total of 59 bacteremia and fungemia cases in 44 patients were studied. From the total number of isolations, 45.8% were gram-negative bacilli, 35.6% were gram-positive cocci, and 18.6% were yeasts. The global distribution of the most prevalent microorganisms was the following: Klebsiella spp. 15.3%; Staphylococcus aureus and Candida parapsilosis 11.9%; coagulase-negative staphylococci 10.2%; Escherichia coli 8.5%, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa 6.8%. More than 40% (41.2%) of enterobacteria showed an extended-spectrum beta-lactamase phenotype, and 20.0% of non-fermenting gram-negative bacilli were multi-resistant to tested antibiotics, while 38.5% of Staphylococcus spp. were methicillin-resistant. In conclusion, the most prevalent microorganisms were gram-negative bacilli, and within this group, enterobacteria evidenced a higher percentage of resistance to tested antibiotics.