Deadly drug-resistant fungus outbreak strikes 200 UK hospital patients

Candida auris infections that target the immune system have been diagnosed across 20 separate NHS trusts and independent hospitals and are proving ‘difficult to control’

Official guidance states that infections are usually minor (PA)

More than 200 people have been contaminated or infected with a potentially deadly strain of a drug-resistant fungus.

Some 20 separate NHS trusts and independent hospitals detected Candida auris in patients, with three hospitals being forced to tackle “large” outbreaks of the pathogen that is “difficult to control”.

First discovered in Japan, the family of yeasts can live on the skin and inside the body, causing complications in people with weakened immune systems.

Public Health England (PHE) said doctors at one hospital were still dealing with an outbreak of the fungus, which is resistant to a commonly prescribed fungicidal drug.

Medical staff have been issued with new guidance on detecting and dealing with the fungus, including the “intensive” disinfection of wards amid concern over the “increasing experience of the complexities” infections are posing.

Meanwhile a biosafety unit at Porton Down, the UK’s chemical weapons lab, has been testing fungicidal activity of a variety of disinfectants and antiseptics.

“As at the beginning of July 2017, 20 separate NHS Trusts and independent hospitals in the United Kingdom had detected over 200 patients colonised or infected with Candida auris,” PHE said.

“Three hospitals have seen large nosocomial [within hospital] outbreaks that have proved difficult to control, despite intensive infection prevention and control measures, though two of these outbreaks have been declared over and one is seeing significantly fewer numbers of new acquisitions.

“Over 35 other hospitals have had patients known to be colonised with Candida auris transferred to them.”

PHE said there was no evidence that any of the infections had resulted in the death of a patient in the UK, although there were limitations to the data available.

Official guidance states that infections are usually minor.

PHE said most cases detected in the UK have been of colonised patients, while around a quarter of cases have been clinical infections – including 27 patients who developed bloodstream infections.

Complications arise when the fungus enters the body or bloodstream during medical treatment.

Candida auris is resistant to the first-line anti-fungal drug fluconazole and the species can rapidly evolve to develop resistance.

The fungus was first identified in the ear of a patient in Japan in 2009 and has since caused prolonged hospital outbreaks in India, Pakistan, Venezuela, and Colombia.

PA