Grzybicze zakażenia szpitalne – narastające zagrożenie

*Marcin Ciszewski, Tomasz Czekaj

Summary
Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) have always been inevitably lined with medicine. They are usually caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi. The frequency of HAI reaches a few percent among hospitalized patients and is relatively stable. However, in the past few years, the percentage of fungal infections has increased remarkably. Some of these infections are exogenous, caused by insufficient application of sanitary and aseptic procedures, but most of them are endogenous. They are caused by physiological fungal flora, notably Candida albicans. In case of immunodeficiency or impaired balance between bacteria and fungi in patient’s gastrointestinal system, which in turn is often caused by a wide-spectrum antibacterial therapy, fungi obtain an opportunity for an aggressive expansion. Invasive candidiasis leads to many serious complications and has a mortality rate of about 40%. Treatment is usually conducted according to already published and shown in this paper, guidelines. Although a complete elimination of healthcare-associated infections doesn’t seem feasible, it is essential to minimize the risk of fungal HAI. Some of ways of achieving that involve a reasonable antibacterial therapy as well as a thoughtful usage of antifungal drugs, in order to avoid selection of multiresistant strains, extremely difficult to cure in medical practice.

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