Emergence of rare and uncommon yeast-like pathogens causing neonatal sepsis at a tertiary care center, North India

Neonatal candidemia is a life-threatening event in babies requiring ICU admission. Prompt diagnosis and appropriate treatment reduce mortality and morbidity. Worldwide, there is an emergence of drug-resistant rare species causing neonatal sepsis that necessitates antifungal susceptibility testing in each case. We did a prospective study to isolate species causing neonatal sepsis and to determine the predisposing risk factors and time to positivity for flagged positivity. We also determined fluconazole, itraconazole and amphotericin B minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against isolated species by broth microdilution method using CLSI M27-A3 guidelines. A total of 107 neonatal candidemia events were noted. Prematurity was the most common predisposing risk factor. Most isolates were non- . , and were the predominant fungi causing neonatal candidemia. A varied antifungal MIC against isolated species was noted. However, 90% of the isolated strains had