Candida auris fungaemia outbreak in a tertiary care academic hospital and emergence of a pan-echinocandin resistant isolate, Greece, 2021 to 2023
Year: 2024
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid rise in reported numbers and wide geographic spread of Candida auris -related invasive infections has been observed globally. However, the contemporary epidemiology of C. auris fungaemias in Greece remains unknown. An outbreak of C. auris bloodstream infections has been ongoing for almost 3 years in a Greek tertiary care academic hospital, with 89 C. auris -driven episodes appearing in five waves every 6–7 months following peaks in colonisation rates by 3–4 months. All isolates clustered in clade I and were genetically related, 84% were fluconazole-resistant and all were non-resistant to amphotericin B and echinocandins, except one pan-echinocandin-resistant isolate ( FKS1 S639F mutant) recovered from a patient on empiric therapy with anidulafungin. Notably, C. auris was in 2023 the most prevalent (34%) cause of candidaemia in our hospital. The accelerated and long-term transmission dynamics of C. auris fungaemia underscore the need for rigorous infection control measures, while antifungal stewardship is warranted to contain the selection of echinocandin-resistant isolates.
Source: Eurosurveillance
Institutions: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University General Hospital Attikon, Radboud University Nijmegen, Radboud University Medical Center, Canisius-Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis, National Centre of Scientific Research "Demokritos", Institute of Biosciences & Applications, Laiko General Hospital of Athens, University of Cologne, Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging Associated Diseases
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4404190343