Alarm a Teacher after the death of a 70-year-old man at the Ospedale dell’Angelo due to an infection with White Ear, the first recorded case in the region. The “killer” fungus is resistant to antifungals and has a mortality rate between 20 and 70%. The man had returned from Kenya, where he had traveled for work and where he had probably contracted the infection. The hospital is carrying out prophylaxis procedures to avoid possible infection in other people.
The death of Candida Auris at the Mestre hospital
The 70-year-old patient was admitted to the USL 3 facility in early July for a mix of pathologies including Candida Auris. The man had returned from Kenya and during his stay in Africa he had suffered from kidney stones. For this he had been hospitalized in a hospital where – according to what the doctors hypothesized – he would have contracted the killer fungus. The man’s clinical picture worsened within a few weeks and three days ago he died.
Candida Auris because she is so dangerous
Candida Auris is related and very similar to the common Candida and was first identified in Japan in 2009 by a woman’s ear (hence the name Auris, in Latin ear). Resistant to 90% of antifungals, it has been listed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a major threat to global health. The mortality rate for those who contract the infection varies from 20 to 70% and death usually occurs 3 weeks after infection, especially in immunosuppressed patients or patients with compromised clinical pictures. The main symptoms are fever, fatigue and muscle aches. Often the fungus infects wounds or can cause infections in the blood.
Candida Auris, contagiousness
Its resistance to disinfectants and antifungals makes it particularly difficult to eradicate. This is also because patients can remain colonized for a long time: Candida auris can colonize the skin for several months and can live on surfaces for a long time. The sequencing of its genome led to ascertain that in the rooms where patients affected by the infection were hospitalized, the fungus was present not only on the mattress, on the bedside table and on the headboard of the patients, but also on other furnishings of the room and even on the windowsill. Due to its particular resistance in Liguria where the first Italian case was recorded, it took two years to arrive at a complete decontamination.
Candida Auris in Italy 300 cases since 2019
In Italy, about 300 cases of Candida Auris have been recorded since 2019. A growing transmission that has led the Ministry to issue a circular to alert health facilities. Each new contagion is notified to the Infectious and Diffusive Diseases Information System.