Candida auris is an emerging fungal pathogen showing resistance to most of the currently available antifungal drugs. The pathogen is spreading rapidly worldwide. It mainly affects immunocompromised individuals such as intensive care unit patients, adults, and newborns who are treated in health care facilities. The isolates can be recovered from a variety of specimens, including mucocutaneous swabs, urine, respiratory specimens, and body fluids; however, bloodstream infections are the most commonly observed invasive infections. The advent of C. auris as a human fungal pathogen has been directly linked to the occurrence of new virulence traits and its ability to adhere to various surfaces to form a multidrug-resistant biofilm. With the lack of distinctive traits in C. auris, its identification has been problematic. The commercially available biochemical tests often misdiagnose the pathogen to phylogenetically related Candida haemulonii species making it difficult for clinicians to initiate proper antifungal treatment in patients. Emergence of resistant isolates has further posed a new challenge to the limited therapeutic options. This review highlights the risk factors involved in infection, virulence traits of C. auris, diagnostic methods, and mechanism of drug resistance along with novel antifungal drugs against this fungal pathogen which could provide direction for future work on it.
Key words: Azoles, echinocandins, pseudohyphae, multi-drug resistance
|
