Brazil recorded its first possible case of Candida Auris, a rare fungus that can cause drug-resistant infections.
Brazil recorded its first possible case of Candida Auris, a rare fungus that can cause drug-resistant infections and potential deaths. The Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (Anvisa) has in fact issued a warning about an ongoing investigation into the possible first positive case in the country of the killer fungus, which has become one of the most feared in the world.
According to the note, the diagnosis would be of an adult hospitalized in the state of Bahia and would have been confirmed by the Laboratory of the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo. A bolt from the blue, considering that the Brazilian public health system has already been under enormous pressure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Anvisa points out that the fungus, first identified in Japan in 2009, "poses a serious threat to global health" and that it had already issued a risk warning earlier in 2017. The alert actually follows a series of reports of disease outbreaks caused by C. auris typically in Latin America.
A health task force has been set up to study this case more closely and prevent the spread of the fungus, the ministry said.
“The Agency is working to contemplate the new epidemiological situation in the country, the inclusion of other laboratories as a reference for the national network and the new scientific evidence available. We recommend health services and microbiology laboratories to be attentive to the guidelines ”, concludes the note.
What is Candida Auris
According to what we read from the study published on BMJ, Candida Auris is a 'fungal infection which, as we have said, was isolated in 2009 in Japan. Over the years, however, it has spread to numerous countries, such as South Korea, the United Kingdom, India, Kuwait, and a strain of Candida Auris was also identified in the United States in 2013.
This type of Candida is of concern because nearly all isolates have been found to be resistant to fluconazole, more than half at voriconazolo, one third to the amphotericin B and many at echinocandins.
Source: Anvisa
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- Candida Auris: the drug-resistant killer fungus
- Candida auris, the fungus that cannot be cured and that could kill in 90 days
