Hospitals order ‘deep clean’ after patients infected by deadly fungus
MORE than 200 people have been treated after being infected in hospital by a potentially deadly strain of drug-resistant fungus.
NHS chiefs have ordered at least 55 hospitals to deep-clean specific areas after the Candida auris outbreak.
C. auris can cause serious bloodstream and wound infections. The fungus is hard to treat because it is resistant to some common medicines. First discovered in Japan in 2009, the family of yeasts can live on the skin and inside the body, causing complications for people with weakened immune systems.
Professor Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen, said the outbreak was “incredibly bad news” for vulnerable patients.
He said: “The situation is a nightmare for intensive care units in particular. The kind of patient that gets infected by this will normally already be immunosuppressed – whether that is because of chemotherapy, tumours, or deliberately suppressed for medical reasons.”
C. auris was diagnosed in the UK in 2013. By the beginning of July, more than 20 NHS or independent hospitals detected more than 200 patients colonised or infected with C. auris. More than 35 other hospitals have had infected patients transferred to them.
The critical care units, liver and cardiac wards were all affected at King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill, London.
Health bosses said a total of 31 patients were colonised at the hospital after a woman passed it on after being admitted from the Royal Brompton in west London. The outbreak, which lasted a year, only ended in April.
Dr Neil Wigglesworth, president of the Infection Prevention Society, said: “The spread of this fungus shows the increasing threat from resistant organisms. The outbreaks reinforce the importance of rigorous infection prevention and control practices to help prevent further occurrences.”
Public Health England said it was “working closely to provide expert support and advice on infection control measures”, adding that no deaths had been so far reported.