scholarly journals Environmental Surfaces in Healthcare Facilities are a Potential Source for Transmission ofCandida aurisand OtherCandidaSpecies

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (9) ◽  
pp. 1107-1109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina T. Piedrahita ◽  
Jennifer L. Cadnum ◽  
Annette L. Jencson ◽  
Aaron A. Shaikh ◽  
Mahmoud A. Ghannoum ◽  
...  

Contaminated surfaces have been implicated as a potential route for dissemination of the emerging multidrug-resistant fungal pathogenCandida auris. In laboratory testing,C. aurisand otherCandidaspecies persisted for 7 days on moist or dry surfaces.Candidaspecies were recovered frequently from the hospital environment, particularly from moist surfaces.Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol2017;38:1107–1109

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Cadnum ◽  
Aaron A. Shaikh ◽  
Christina T. Piedrahita ◽  
Annette L. Jencson ◽  
Emily L. Larkin ◽  
...  

Mobile ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light room decontamination devices are frequently used as an adjunct to standard cleaning in healthcare facilities, but their efficacy in killing Candida species is not clear. In laboratory testing, the emerging multidrug-resistant Candida auris and 2 other Candida species were significantly less susceptible to killing by UV-C than methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:94–96


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 380-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Rutala ◽  
Hajime Kanamori ◽  
Maria F. Gergen ◽  
Emily E. Sickbert-Bennett ◽  
David J. Weber

Candida auris is an emerging fungal pathogen that is often resistant to major classes of antifungal drugs. It is considered a serious global health threat because it can cause severe infections with frequent mortality in more than a dozen countries. It can survive on healthcare environmental surfaces for at least 7 days and can cause outbreaks in healthcare facilities. Clearly, infection prevention strategies, such as surface disinfection, will be essential to controlling Candida transmission. Unfortunately, data on the activity of antiseptics and disinfectants used in healthcare to inactivate this pathogen are limited.1–5 In this study, we investigated 12 different disinfectants (ie, 8 low- and intermediate-level disinfectants in 2 dilutions of sodium hypochlorite and 5 high-level disinfectants/chemical sterilants) and 9 antiseptics commonly used in healthcare facilities for their antimicrobial activity against C. auris and C. albicans.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s292-s292
Author(s):  
William Rutala ◽  
Hajime Kanamori ◽  
Maria Gergen ◽  
Emily Sickbert-Bennett ◽  
David Jay Weber

Background:Candida auris is an emerging fungal pathogen that is often resistant to major classes of antifungal drugs. It is considered a serious global health threat because it has caused severe infections with frequent mortality in over a dozen countries. C. auris can survive on healthcare environmental surfaces for at least 7 days, and it causes outbreaks in healthcare facilities. C. auris has an environmental route of transmission. Thus, infection prevention strategies, such as surface disinfection and room decontamination technologies (eg, ultraviolet [UV-C] light), will be essential to controlling transmission. Unfortunately, data are limited regarding the activity of UV-C to inactivate this pathogen. In this study, a UV-C device was evaluated for its antimicrobial activity against C. auris and C. albicans. Methods: We tested the antifungal activity of a single UV-C device using the vegetative bacteria cycle, which delivers a reflected dose of 12,000 µW/cm2. This testing was performed using Formica sheets (7.6 × 7.6 cm; 3 × 3 inches). The carriers were inoculated with C. auris or C. albicans and placed horizontal on the surface or vertical (ie, perpendicular) to the vertical UV-C lamp and at a distance from 1. 2 m (~4 ft) to 2.4 m (~8 ft). Results: Direct UV-C, with or without FCS (log10 reduction 4.57 and 4.45, respectively), exhibited a higher log10 reduction than indirect UV-C for C. auris (log10 reduction 2.41 and 1.96, respectively), which was statistically significant (Fig. 1 and Table 1). For C. albicans, although direct UV-C had a higher log10 reduction (log10 reduction with and without FCS, 5.26 and 5.07, respectively) compared to indirect exposure (log10 reduction with and without FCS, 3.96 and 3.56, respectively), this difference was not statistically significant. The vertical UV had statistically higher log10 reductions than horizontal UV against C. auris and C. albicans with FCS and without FCS. For example, for C. auris with FCS the log10 reduction for vertical surfaces was 4.92 (95% CI 3.79, 6.04) and for horizontal surfaces the log10 reduction was 2.87 (95% CI, 2.36–3.38). Conclusions:C. auris can be inactivated on environmental surfaces by UV-C as long as factors that affect inactivation are optimized (eg, exposure time). These data and other published UV-C data should be used in developing cycle parameters that prevent contaminated surfaces from being a source of acquisition by staff or patients of this globally emerging pathogen.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. S576-S577
Author(s):  
Brittany O’Brien ◽  
Sudha Chaturvedi ◽  
Vishnu Chaturvedi

Abstract Background Candida auris outbreak continues unabated in New York with the current case counts exceeding 300 patients. We used a modification of standard CLSI broth microdilution method (BMD) if two-drug combinations are efficacious against C. auris isolates with high-resistance to fluconazole (FZ, MIC50 >256 mg/L), and variable resistance to other broad-spectrum antifungal drugs. Methods BMD plates were custom-designed and quality controlled by TREK Diagnostic System. The combination tests of 15 drug-resistant C. auris involved microtiter wells with the initial 144 two-drug combinations and their two-fold dilutions (1/2–1/32) to get 864 two-drug combinations finally. We utilized MIC100 endpoints for the drug combination readings as reported earlier for the intra- and inter-laboratory agreements obtained against Candida species and Aspergillus fumigatus (Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2015. 59:1759–1766). We also tested minimum fungicidal concentrations (MFC). Results We tested all possible 864 two-drug antifungal combinations for nine antifungal drugs in use to yield 12,960 MIC100 readings, and MFC readings for 15 C. auris isolates. Flucytosine (FLC) at 2.0 mg/L potentiated most successful combinations with other drugs. Micafungin (MFG), Anidulafungin (AFG), Caspofungin (CAS) at individual concentrations of 0.25 mg/L combined well with FLC (2.0 mg/L) to yield MIC100 for 14, 13, and 12 of 15 C. auris isolates tested, respectively. MFG/FLC combination was also fungicidal for 4 of 15 isolates. AMB / FLC (0.25/1.0 mg/L) yielded MIC100 for 13 isolates and MFC for three test isolates. Posaconazole (POS), and Isavuconazole (ISA) and Voriconazole (VRC) also combined well with FLC (0.25/2.0 mg/L) to yield MIC100 for 12, 13, and 13 isolates, respectively. POS/FLC combination was fungicidal for three isolates. Conclusion We identified seven two drug-combinations of antifungals efficacious against drug-resistant C. auris strains. The modified BMD combination susceptibility testing could be used by the clinical laboratories to assist providers with the selection of optimal treatment for C. auris candidemia. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. S776-S776
Author(s):  
Arash Eatemadi ◽  
Aiman Al Wahibi ◽  
Hilal Al shibli ◽  
Ali Al reesi

Abstract Background Recent emergence of Candida auris as a multidrug resistant fungal pathogen, is a serious concerns for public health. However, there is a paucity of reported cases from Oman. Literature search resulted in finding only 7 cases from Oman, reporting C. auris infections in the articles first published in 2017. However, the rate of isolatin is increasing. Methods In this study, we included the results of all positive blood cultures of C. auris in Suhar teaching hospital from May 2018 (date of first detection) till end of April 2019. Further confirmation of the species was performed by MALDI-TOF and antibiotic susceptibility test (AST) by Vitek 2 in central public health laboratory (CPHL) of Oman. Results We detected 13 patients (9 females, 4 males). The mean age was 58.61% years (28–76 years). All candidemic patients had serious underlying conditions, including prolonged hospital stay or extensive and prolonged antimicrobial exposure or medical comorbidities (8 of 13). The time from hospital admission to onset of C. auris candidemia was 8–49 days, with a median of approximately 27 days. The most common isolated co- pathogen from blood culture was K. pneumonia (without regard to Coagulase-negative staphylococci). As average, every patient received 4.8 kind of different antibiotics in mean 88 doses before candidemia developed and piperacillin–tazobactam was the most common used antibiotics. AST was done just for 5 patients and revealed high-level resistance to fluconazole and Amphotricin B while, Echinocandins (anidulafungin, caspofungin) were fully sensitive and voricunazole had intermediate sensitivity. Mean duration of anti-fungal treatment was 12.5 days (5 – 26 days). 8 patients treated by Echinocandins (4/8 died), 4 by Fluconazole (3/4 died) and one without treatment discharged. 30-day all-cause mortality was 61.5%. Conclusion In Oman, C. auris has been reported from many hospitals. Resistance to several antifungal agents and persistence in the hospital environment make this organism a potential menace for the treating physician and the infection control personnel. In our hospital, every candidemic patient should be treated with Echinocandins and assumed to be resistant to Fluconazole until proven otherwise according to results of AST. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


Antibiotics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 461
Author(s):  
Roberto Vazquez-Munoz ◽  
Fernando D. Lopez ◽  
Jose L. Lopez-Ribot

Candida auris is an emergent multidrug-resistant pathogenic yeast, which forms biofilms resistant to antifungals, sanitizing procedures, and harsh environmental conditions. Antimicrobial nanomaterials represent an alternative to reduce the spread of pathogens—including yeasts—regardless of their drug-resistant profile. Here we have assessed the antimicrobial activity of easy-to-synthesize bismuth nanoparticles (BiNPs) against the emergent multidrug-resistant yeast Candida auris, under both planktonic and biofilm growing conditions. Additionally, we have examined the effect of these BiNPs on cell morphology and biofilm structure. Under planktonic conditions, BiNPs MIC values ranged from 1 to 4 µg mL−1 against multiple C. auris strains tested, including representatives of all different clades. Regarding the inhibition of biofilm formation, the calculated BiNPs IC50 values ranged from 5.1 to 113.1 µg mL−1. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations indicated that BiNPs disrupted the C. auris cell morphology and the structure of the biofilms. In conclusion, BiNPs displayed strong antifungal activity against all strains of C. auris under planktonic conditions, but moderate activity against biofilm growth. BiNPs may potentially contribute to reducing the spread of C. auris strains at healthcare facilities, as sanitizers and future potential treatments. More research on the antimicrobial activity of BiNPs is warranted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Sharp ◽  
Berit Muller-Pebody ◽  
Andre Charlett ◽  
Bharat Patel ◽  
Rebecca Gorton ◽  
...  

Background Candida auris is an emerging multidrug-resistant fungal pathogen associated with bloodstream, wound and other infections, especially in critically ill patients. C. auris carriage is persistent and is difficult to eradicate from the hospital environment. Aim We aimed to pilot admission screening for C. auris in intensive care units (ICUs) in England to estimate prevalence in the ICU population and to inform public health guidance. Methods Between May 2017 and April 2018, we screened admissions to eight adult ICUs in hospitals with no previous cases of C. auris, in three major cities. Swabs were taken from the nose, throat, axilla, groin, perineum, rectum and catheter urine, then cultured and identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Patient records were linked to routine ICU data to describe and compare the demographic and health indicators of the screened cohort with a national cohort of ICU patients admitted between 2016 and 2017. Results All C. auris screens for 921 adults from 998 admissions were negative. The upper confidence limit of the pooled prevalence across all sites was 0.4%. Comparison of the screened cohort with the national cohort showed it was broadly similar to the national cohort with respect to demographics and co-morbidities. Conclusion These findings imply that C. auris colonisation among patients admitted to ICUs in England is currently rare. We would not currently recommend widespread screening for C. auris in ICUs in England. Hospitals should continue to screen high-risk individuals based on local risk assessment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Husam Salah ◽  
Sathyavathi Sundararaju ◽  
Lamya Dalil ◽  
Patrick Tang ◽  
Walid Al-Wali ◽  
...  

Candida auris is an emerging, multidrug resistant fungal pathogen that has become a public health threat worldwide. Candida auris spreads easily among patients within and between hospitals, and the incidence of infections has increased substantially in the last decade. Multiple C. auris outbreaks have been reported worldwide including India, USA and United Kingdom. Infections and outbreaks caused by C. auris have also been reported in the Middle East region including Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar; however, the origin of these isolates is largely unknown. This study uses whole genome sequencing (WGS) data to determine the epidemiology and the drug resistance mutations from C. auris in Qatar. Forty samples isolated from the patients and the hospital environment were sequenced by Illumina Nextseq. Core genome SNPs revealed that all isolates belonged to the Indian lineage, which could be originated from the expatriate labour from South Asia. The genetic variability among the isolates was low but comprised of more than one genetic cluster. The environmental isolates were identical to the clinical isolates, and the isolates from patients of different hospitals/outbreaks clustered together, suggesting the transmission of C. auris could be linked to infected/colonized patients and the hospital environment. Mutations associated with azole and echinocandin resistance were discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon Bamborough ◽  
Janet Quinn ◽  
Alison Day

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