Bad news, however the case numbers seem to be small!
Drug-resistant bacterial infections have a competitor? Caution: irony!
I bet, this is not limited to Europe and Egypt!
"European Hospitals’ Formidable Fungal Threat
A drug-resistant fungal infection has gained a foothold in European hospitals, proliferating “from isolated cases to becoming widespread in some countries,” the European Centre for Disease Control warned in a report last week.
Rapid rise: The fungus Candidozyma auris has only been detected within the last decade; but since 2013, 4,000+ people have been infected across 18 countries.
1,346 cases were reported in 2023 alone—a 67% jump from the previous year.
Deadly foe: C. auris thrives in health facilities, surviving on surfaces from windowsills to stethoscopes, and resists most disinfectants and antifungals.
~60% of infected patients die within 90 days. ..."
From the abstract (unfortunately, a very technical abstract for subject specialists only):
"Candidozyma auris (formerly Candida auris) has emerged as a significant multidrug-resistant pathogen. Among 140 antifungal-resistant Candida spp. isolates, 120 were identified as C. auris using chromogenic agar, VITEK 2, and MALDI-TOF.
Most cases (60%) were males, and 59% were aged ≥ 60 years.
Bloodstream infections were predominant (60.8%), followed by respiratory (20.8%), urinary tract (15%), and other sites.
Liver transplantation (35.8%) was the most common underlying risk factor, followed by post-COVID-19 (30.8%) and cancer (25%).
All isolates exhibited thermotolerance, halotolerance, anaerobic blood hemolysis, and biofilm formation.
Significant association was observed between virulence enzymes activity and both specimen source and clinical conditions (P < 0.001), with strong activity linked to blood isolates, liver transplant, post-COVID-19, and lung cancer.
Among antifungal agents, voriconazole (MIC50/90: 0.125/0.5 µg/mL), posaconazole (0.03/0.125 µg/mL), and amphotericin B (0.5/1 µg/mL) showed consistently low MICs. Caspofungin (0.25/1 µg/mL) and micafungin (0.125/0.5 µg/mL) demonstrated favorable activity, with resistance rates of 3.3% and 4.2%, respectively.
Fluconazole resistance was observed among all isolates (MIC50/90: 32/32 µg/mL). Itraconazole and ketoconazole showed elevated MICs (MIC50/90: 1/4 and 16/64 µg/mL, respectively) and was inactive against all isolates.
Flucytosine (MIC50/90: 64/128 µg/mL) was inactive against 96.7%.
Agreement between VITEK 2 and CLSI BMD was strong for fluconazole, voriconazole, amphotericin B, caspofungin, and micafungin (Cohen’s kappa ≥ 0.8), but poor for flucytosine (0.35), indicating limited reliability.
This report provides crucial local data on antifungal susceptibility and virulence traits of C. auris, supporting infection control and treatment strategies in Egypt."
Fig. 1 Workflow of the study
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