Superfungus: PE health department confirms 3 cases, but does not find the chain of transmission

Superfungus: PE health department confirms 3 cases, but does not find the chain of transmission


Candida auris causes an infection of the bloodstream and is not identified through basic testing. Three people infected in Pernambuco are hospitalized in different hospitals

The State Department of Health of Pernambuco (SES-PE) confirms three cases of people infected with the superfungus candida auris in state hospitals. However, a chain of transmission linking these three patients has not been identified. The hypothesis so far is of natural contamination of each of the three, hospitalized in different hospitals.

OR candida auris it causes blood flow and other invasive infections and is very resistant to drugs commonly used to fight fungi. There are several strains of C. auris, and some are immune to all three existing drug classes.

The three infected people are a 48-year-old man from the Miguel Arraes hospital in Paulista, a 77-year-old man from the Tricentenary hospital in Olinda and a 66-year-old man from the Portuguese hospital in Recife.

José Lancart de Lima, director general of epidemiological information at SES, said this Sunday 28 to ‘Fantástico’, on TV Globo: “It is a limited situation, controlled and subjected to a routine surveillance intervention so that we can, effectively guarantee patient safety”.

Risk and nosocomial transmission

According to health agencies such as the US government’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the mortality rate of infected patients is as high as 60%. Transmission usually occurs in hospital settings, where patients are already suffering from other diseases, which contribute to aggravation and eventual death.

Being a relatively recent microbe – it was identified for the first time in 2009, in Japan – there is still no detailed information on how the disease is transmitted. candida auris. “Initial evidence suggests that it is spread in the health service through contact with contaminated surfaces or equipment in colonised/infected patient rooms, and it is therefore essential to strengthen prevention and control measures with particular attention to hand hygiene and cleanliness and disinfection of the environment and equipment”, informs a note from the state health department of Pernambuco.

In addition to being resistant to drugs, this fungus is also more resistant to disinfectants, making it more difficult to sanitize a contaminated environment.

Another difficulty imposed by candida auris it is identification. Basic tests that can identify other types of mushrooms are not helpful in identifying this one. There are several records of victims who were initially diagnosed with another type of fungus and treated inappropriately until proper identification was made.

Historical

The first case in Brazil was recorded in a hospital in Salvador on December 4, 2020. The victim was admitted to intensive care to treat covid-19. According to the Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) Foundation, the largest outbreak ever recorded in Brazil occurred in Recife, which recorded 48 cases between November 2021 and February 2022.

The fungus was first identified in the Americas in March 2012 when it affected 18 patients at a hospital in Venezuela. Then there were cases in Colombia, Panama and Chile. In the United States it was first identified in 2016, in a New York hospital. The number of cases is growing and the amount of drugs needed to inactivate the fungus has increased, according to health authorities.

Source: Terra

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