The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just released a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) update on Candida auris (C. auris) cases identified in US healthcare facilities through May 2017. C. auris is an emerging fungal infection that presents a serious global health threat for the following reasons:
- it causes serious infections
- it is often drug resistant, and
- it spreads in healthcare settings
In June 2016, CDC released the first clinical alert about C. auris. Although it is still rare in the region, the CDC has seen an increasing number of cases.
As of May 12, 2017, a total of 77 US clinical cases of C. auris had been reported to CDC from seven states: The MMWR provides information on these.
The following states are listed: New York (53 cases), New Jersey (16), Illinois (four), Indiana (one), Maryland (one), Massachusetts (one), and Oklahoma (one).
All of these cases were identified through cultures taken as part of routine patient care (clinical cases). Screening of close contacts of these patients, primarily of patients on the same ward in healthcare facilities, identified an additional 45 patients with C. auris isolated from one or more body sites (screening cases), resulting in a total of 122 patients from whom C. auris has been isolated.
The CDC’s C. auris website provides monthly updates on reported C. auris cases. As well as provinding information for patients and family members and for healthcare workers, and interim recommendations for healthcare facilities and laboratories.
What CDC is doing
The CDC is providing technical assistance to state health departments when cases are identified and continues to work with partners to contain the spread of C. auris.
Using resources provided by Congress in fiscal year 2016, CDC is making transformative improvements to the nation’s ability to further identify and respond to new and known drug resistance threats, including C. auris:
- CDC is enhancing national infrastructure in 50 states, five major cities/territories, and seven regions to ensure rapid identification and containment of resistant pathogens and mechanism threats, including C. auris, across all healthcare settings.
- Regional labs in the CDC AR Lab Network will test for and support response to new forms of Candida resistance in the US.
- CDC is enhancing tracking of Candida to better understand the yeast through the Emerging Infections Program.
- CDC has made C. auris samples available through the CDC AR Isolate Bank to further assist diagnostic labs to calibrate, or standardise, their diagnostic tests so they can accurately identify and characterize this emerging threat. These samples can also assist industry in their work toward innovation for preventing resistant infections like C. auris.
