Rhodotorula mucilaginosa outbreak in neonatal intensive care unit: microbiological features, clinical presentation, and analysis of related variables.

Reported here are the features of a Rhodotorula mucilaginosa outbreak that occurred in a neonatal intensive care unit. Over a period of 19 days, clinical and laboratory signs of sepsis appeared in four premature infants carrying indwelling vascular catheters. After bloodstream infection with R. mucilaginosa was ascertained, the patients underwent amphotericin B therapy and recovered completely. In a retrospective case-control study, the variables displaying a statistical difference between case and control-group neonates were birth weight, gestational age, duration of parenteral nutrition, duration of antibiotic therapy and prophylactic administration of fluconazole. To our knowledge, this is the first reported outbreak caused by yeasts of the Rhodotorula genus.