Skin Colonization by Malassezia spp. in Hospitalized Neonates and Infants in a Tertiary Care Centre in North India

Abstract

Malassezia, a skin colonizer, is associated with multiple skin disorders in adults, and cephalic pustulosis and folliculitis in children. It can cause fungemia in infants and neonates. The time and pattern of colonization, risk factors associated with colonization and causing fungemia in children, are not well understood. The prospective cohort study was conducted to determine the rate of Malassezia species colonization and associated factors in hospitalized neonates and infants. Consecutive 50 neonates and infants admitted in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units were studied. The skin swabs were collected on the day of admission and every fifth day, thereafter, till the patient was discharged or died. Putative risk factors for the colonization of Malassezia species were recorded. Isolates were identified by phenotypic methods and sequencing of the D1 and D2 region of rDNA. Neonates were not colonized at the time of entry in neonatal ICU or at birth. Nineteen (38 %) neonates were colonized with Malassezia species during their hospital stay. Among the infants, three (6 %) came to ICU with Malassezia colonization and 26 (52 %) acquired Malassezia during ICU stay. Mechanical ventilation, duration of hospital stay, central venous catheterization, and antifungal therapy were the significantly associated factors for colonization. Malassezia furfur was the most common species isolated from the skin of infants and neonates. Colonization by Malassezia species in infants and neonates in a hospital is not uncommon and can be a potential source of nosocomial infection.

Skin fungal community and its correlation with bacterial community of urban Chinese individuals

“…While cutaneous mycobiome investigations of healthy Asian individuals based in Japan [3, 4, 22, 54–56], Korea [5], and India [57] have been conducted, investigations on Chinese individuals have been limited to prokaryote communities [12, 52, 58]. By selecting only Chinese subjects in our study, our cohort is a representative model of the Chinese population in HK, and while subjects in this study may not represent other Chinese individuals [58], this study is nonetheless fundamental in beginning to understand the skin mycobiome of the Chinese.…”

Identification of Malassezia furfur Secreted Aspartyl Protease 1 (MfSAP1) and Its Role in Extracellular Matrix Degradation

“…M. furfur colonization on skin surfaces is much less abundant than M. globosa and M. restricta, but it has been associated with various dermatological conditions such as pityriasis versicolor (Gaitanis et al, 2012;Velegraki et al, 2015). More significantly, M. furfur is involved in certain rare systemic infections in immunosuppressed patients and in neonates on parenteral nutrition (Gupta et al, 2014;Chen et al, 2019). Functional annotation of the recently sequenced M. furfur CBS 14141 genome enabled us to identify different classes of secretory proteases.…”

Performance of Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization–Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry for Identifying Clinical Malassezia Isolates

“…sympodialis (7), and in Korea it is M. restricta (8). Some other studies have described various predominant species depending on the body site, the geographical location, and the methods used for their identification (5, 7).…”