The first cases of Candida auris candidaemia in Oman

Abstract

Candida auris has been recognised as a problematic healthcare-associated emerging yeast which is often misidentified as Candida haemulonii by commercial systems. Correct early identification of C. auris is important for appropriate antifungal treatment and implementing effective infection control measures. Here we report emergence of the first C. auris cases in Oman, initially misidentified as C. haemulonii.

Candida auris: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of current updates on an emerging multidrug‐resistant pathogen

“…Microscopy has been instrumental in providing pictorial images of the shapes, color, size, and population structure (Figure ) of C. auris strains growing on different culture media such as Sabouraud's dextrose agar (SDA), CHROMagar, Brilliance Candida agar, GYPA culture plates, CS4 agar medium and cornmeal agar at different temperatures and incubation times (Table ). Particularly on CHROMagar, which is the most common media used, C. auris appear as pale purple or pink smooth colonies occurring as single, paired and/or grouped ovoid, ellipsoidal to elongate budding cells (Kathuria et al., ; Mohsin et al., ; Satoh et al., ); on SDA, they appear as smooth white to cream‐colored colonies (Prakash et al., ). However, Kumar, Banerjee, Pratap, and Tilak () (Kumar et al., ) saw no characteristic color on CHROMagar with their C. auris strains, which could be due to the conditions used.…”

“…Risk factors associated with C. auris infections are consistently the same in almost all the reported cases worldwide and these include the presence of catheters (urinary, central venous), arterial line, parenteral nutrition, invasive medical procedures (surgeries) and devices, mechanical ventilation, hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) stays, prior or continual exposure to broad spectrum antifungal or antibiotic therapy, or comorbid disease conditions such as diabetes mellitus and HIV/AIDS (Al‐Siyabi et al., ; Ben‐Ami et al., ; Calvo et al., ; Chowdhary et al., , ; Lee et al., ; Lockhart et al., ; Mohsin et al., ; Morales‐Lopez et al., ; Rudramurthy et al., ; Ruiz Gaitán et al., ; Schelenz et al., ; Tsay et al., ; Vallabhaneni et al., ). It is obvious from these risk factors that invasive devices or procedures easily result in the introduction of and re‐infection with C. auris in most patients, and the removal of catheters resolved several candidemia (Chowdhary et al., ; Lee et al., ; Ruiz Gaitán et al., ).…”

“…Two different research groups simultaneously reported of separate C. auris incidence at different hospitals in Oman in the same year (Al‐Siyabi et al., ; Mohsin et al., ), one of which described two clonal strains from two old (70 and 77 years) patients from the same hospital; one patient died (50% mortality) (Mohsin et al., ). Al‐Siyabi reported of five C. auris candidaemia cases involving mostly old patients in another hospital, of which three died (Al‐Siyabi et al., ).…”

“…The phylogenetic relationship between the isolates from these two reports has not been undertaken, albeit this is necessary to show if the isolates from the two reports are clonally related, and if these cases were locally acquired or imported. The two clonally related isolates (Mohsin et al., ) however seem to have been locally acquired as the patients had never traveled outside Oman; notwithstanding, they clustered phylogenetically between isolates from India and UK. Further investigations might be necessary to show whether they had contacts with persons from some of these countries.…”

In vitro efficacy of disinfectants utilised for skin decolonisation and environmental decontamination during a hospital outbreak with Candida auris

“…There has been an emergence of the multidrug‐resistant yeast Candida auris ( C. auris ) causing a number of hospital outbreaks and nosocomial infections globally . Patient to patient transmission has been documented leading primarily to extensive C. auris skin colonisation and an increased risk of candidaemia .…”