Public health issues with Candida auris in COVID-19 patients

Abstract

The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has overwhelmed a number of medical facilities as well as a few entire health-care systems. A novel issue co-incident with the expeditious deployment of specialty care units for COVID-19 inpatients is the worldwide epidemic of Candida auris infections. Since its first identification and classification in Japan in 2009, it has spread globally. This threat was predicted as C. auris has a high mortality rate, cryptic fomite spread, frequent misidentification since conventional methods do not detect it, and multidrug-resistance. Since the April 2020 warning at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, C. auris has been delineated as an increasingly consequential source of significant nosocomial infections, emphasizing the added hazard of C. auris to COVID-19 inpatients, particularly those in intensive care units.