P159 The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on invasive Candida auris infections in Kuwait

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on the incidence of Candida auris invasive infections at a national level. Method(s): This is a laboratory-based, three years-period retrospective study. The demographic and mycological data were obtained from the mycology reference laboratory (MRL) active surveillance system. The number of C. auris blood isolates was retrieved for the following years: 2019,2020, and 2021.C. auris blood isolates from all hospitals were sent to the MRL as part of patient care. Species-level identification was confirmed by chromogenic media, VITEK 2 yeast identification system, and/or MALDI-T OF MS (VITEK MS).Antifungal susceptibilitywas performed usingEtest accordingto manufacturerinstructions.The following antifungal agents were tested: amphotericin B, fluconazole, voriconazole, and casp ofungin. If the strain was resistant or intermediate to casp ofungin, other echinocandins (micafungin or anidulafungin) were tested for confirmation. Since there were no established clinical breakpoints for C.auris, tentative minimum inhibitory concentrations were used based on experts' opinions. Incidence rates of COVID-19 during the years 2020 and 2021 (COVID-19) were obtained from the World Health Organization website. All data were numerically coded and labelled for each variable using Micros oft Excel (Version 16.57,2021), then analyzed by SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute., USA). P-value