Candida auris

Services

Information for:

General public

Healthcare providers

Media

Schools and childcare

One Health in Utah

Health departments

Public health departments

Candida auris

Candida auris (c. auris) is a fungal organism of concern for 3 main reasons:

It is often multidrug resistant and since it is a fungus, antibiotics are ineffective which further limits the available treatment options
It can be difficult to identify with standard lab methods and misclassification may occur
It often spreads in healthcare facilities and can be associated with a high mortality rate if it becomes an invasive infection

C. auris can spread within a healthcare setting through environmental surfaces, person to person, or contaminated equipment. The primary method for infection prevention and control for C. auris is very similar to other MDROs (https://www.cdc.gov/candida-auris/hcp/infection-control/index.html):

Adhere to hand hygiene.
Use appropriate transmission-based precautions based on setting.
Clean and disinfect the patient care environment (daily and terminal cleaning) and reusable equipment with recommended products.
Communicate between facilities about a patient’s C. auris status when a patient is transferred to another healthcare facility.
Screen contacts of newly identified case patients to identify C. auris colonization.
Use laboratory surveillance of clinical specimens to detect additional cases.

For cleaning purposes, the CDC recommends using cleaning agents from the EPA List P for C. auris.