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

Abstract

From 2009, Candida auris has emerged as a multidrug-resistant ascomycete yeast pathogen with the capacity for easy transmission between patients and hospitals, as well as persistence on environmental surfaces. Its association with high mortalities, breakthrough and persistent candidaemia, inconsistencies in susceptibility testing results, misidentification by available commercial identification systems and treatment failure, complicates its management and detection. Within the last nine years, C. auris has been increasingly reported from far-Eastern Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, South and North America with substantial fatalities and misidentification. Herein, I provide a systematic and thorough review of this emerging pathogen. Meta-analysis showed that at least 742 C. auris isolates have been reported in 16 countries, with most of these being from India (≥243), USA (≥232) and UK (≥103) (p-value =.0355) within 2013–2017. Most isolates were from males (64.76%) (p-value =.0329) and blood (67.48%) (p-value