Via medicalexpress.com, a FAPESP report: COVID-19 creates conditions for emergence of 'superfungus' in Brazil. Excerpt:
Fully occupied intensive care units (ICUs). Physically and mentally exhausted health workers. Chaotically overcrowded hospitals. These and similar problems posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil have created ideal conditions for the emergence of Candida auris, a microorganism some are calling a "superfungus" because of the speed with which it has developed drug resistance. T
he first two cases were confirmed in December 2020 at a hospital in Salvador (state of Bahia, Northeast Brazil), and are described in the Journal of Fungi by a group of researchers led by Arnaldo Colombo, head of the Special Mycology Laboratory at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). The study was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation—FAPESP.
"Nine other C. auris patients have since been diagnosed at the same hospital, some colonized [with the fungus in their organism but not doing harm] and others infected," Colombo told. "No other cases have been reported in Brazil, but there are grounds for concern. We're monitoring the evolutionary characteristics of C. auris isolates from patients at the hospital in Salvador, and we've already found samples with reduced sensitivity to fluconazole and echinocandins. T
he latter belong to the main class of drugs used to treat invasive candidiasis." Except for C. auris, fungi of the genus Candida are part of the human gut microbiota and cause problems only when there are imbalances in the organism, Colombo explained.
These include infections such as vaginal yeast infection and thrush (oral candidiasis), often caused by C. albicans. In some cases, however, the fungus enters the bloodstream and causes a systemic infection known as candidemia, the most common form of invasive candidiasis, similar to bacterial sepsis. Invasion of the bloodstream and the immune system's exacerbated response to the pathogen can cause damage to several organs and even lead to death.
According to scientific evidence, mortality among candidemia patients infected by C. auris can reach 60%. "The species quickly becomes resistant to multiple drugs and isn't very sensitive to the disinfectants used by hospitals and clinics," Colombo said. "As a result, it's able to persist in hospitals, where it colonizes health workers and ends up infecting patients with severe COVID-19 and other long-stay critical patients."