Fungal Surveillance in Bangladesh

This will be an exploratory descriptive study designed to conduct surveillance for the identification of invasive fungal pathogens among hospitalized patients in Bangladesh at two tertiary care acute-level hospitals. including the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the Dhaka Hospital of icddr,b, and the National Institute of Cancer Research Hospital (NICRH). Respiratory samples, blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, surgical wound infection swabs, and other samples including biopsy tissue specimens will be obtained at intensive care units, general medicine and surgery wards, post-operative care, etc. The collected specimens will be sent to the clinical microbiology laboratories of the surveillance hospitals or to the pathology laboratory (biopsy tissue specimens) to test for Aspergillus, Histoplasms, Candida, Pneumocystis, Cryptococcus, and Mucormycetes. The lab. methods will include microscopy, staining, culture, and biochemical tests mainly and if feasible then some specimens may undergo molecular or immunological methods.