Candida auris: the most talked about multidrug-resistant emerging fungal pathogen

Abstract

Candida species are the most common opportunistic fungal pathogens in immunosuppressed patients as a result of treatment of cancer or auto-immune diseases with chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy.1 Candida spp. are found on the skin, in the oral cavity, gastrointestinal, and urogenital tract of healthy individuals, where they colonise these surfaces as commensal microorganisms. When there is a shift in the host–microbial relationship, they proliferate and sometimes invade, giving rise to vaginitis, oral and oesophageal candidiasis, cutaneous candidiasis, candidemia, and systemic infections.1 Among them, candidemia (bloodstream infection) is the most frequent hospital-acquired fungal infection. Invasive Candida infections are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality, increased length of hospital stay, and hugely elevated healthcare costs.2 Increasing populations of immunocompromised people due to invasive clinical procedures, organ transplantation, cancer treatment, management of immune-mediated diseases, HIV infection/AIDS, and long periods of hospitalisation contribute to high invasive fungal disease rates.3

Keywords

• alternative treament options
• Australian situation
• Candida auris
• clinical issues
• emerging fungal pathogens
• environmental sources