Japan fungus found in 200 patients at UK hospitals

MORE than 200 hospital patients have contracted a drug-resistant fungus first found in Japan, according to health officials.

The Candida auris fungus arrived in the UK in 2013 and rates have been going up ever since.

Most patients have no symptoms and won’t even know they are carrying the fungus. But it can cause serious bloodstream and wound infections, particularly in vulnerable patients with underlying illnesses.

Public Health England is urging hospitals to improve their hygiene measures to prevent it spreading further.

A total of 20 NHS and private hospitals have found the fungus in patients including three which experienced large outbreaks difficult to control.

They were the Royal Brompton and Harefield in West London, which was the worst affected, King’s College Hospital in South London and Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust.

These three outbreaks are now over and despite the recent increase in infections, Public Health England (PHE) says it is still rare.

Dr Colin Brown, from PHE’s national infection service, said most of the UK cases had been detected by routine screening. The majority of patients didn’t have any symptoms and weren’t even aware they had the fungus, he added.

‘Our enhanced surveillance shows a low risk to patients in healthcare settings. Most cases detected have not shown symptoms or developed an infection as a result of the fungus.

‘NHS hospitals that have experienced outbreaks of Candida auris have not found it to be the cause of death in any patients.’

Candida auris belongs to a family of fungi which live on the skin and inside the body and is closely related to the yeast infection thrush. It was first identified in 2009 in a patient from Japan and outbreaks have since been reported around the world including in the USA, India and Spain.

‘Patients weren’t aware’