When the reports of drug-resistant strains of different bacteria have been a cause for concern among the health professionals and informed section of the public, new research findings about drug resistant fungi are coming. In this connection, a fresh study done by the ICDDR,B, a noted Dhaka-based international research body on public health, has found a highly infectious and drug-resistant superbug, a variety of fungus. Called Candida auris, in short, C. auris, the fungus used to spread among newborns at neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of hospitals. As this new study says, the superbug has meanwhile crossed the boundary of NICUs and spread to other ICU settings as well. The study was done by the ICDDR,B in collaboration with the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) of Dhaka and supported by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of the USA.
The alarming part of the study results is that one third of the patients under scrutiny contracted the fungus during their stay in the ICUs. That means it is the ICUs of hospitals, not individuals from outside, who are the main points of transmission of the deadly fungus, C. auris. Worse yet, of the patients carrying the fungus, 13 per cent were infected from public hospitals, whereas private hospitals were to blame for far fewer percentage of the fungal infections. Clearly, the private hospital ICUs are cleaner and follow better fungus control and prevention practice. It is worthwhile to note the drug-resistant C. auris has turned out to be a global threat to public health as it causes severe, invasive bloodstream, wound and ear infections especially under hospitalised conditions. Most at risk are the patients with weakened immune systems under long-term hospital care. The fungus in question is in most cases multi-drug resistant and can survive for weeks on surfaces of medical equipment, hospital beds, etc. The fungus can also live on the skin or in the human body without symptoms, a state known as colonization. But as indicated earlier, it can enter bloodstream causing severe health hazard. As the superbug can survive on surfaces, it can spread easily within hospital facilities.
Unsurprisingly, the critically ill patients at ICUs attached to particularly invasive procedures such as mechanical ventilation and central urinary catheters are prone to contract the deadly superbug. The irony is that the life-saving procedures themselves are now the cause for worst concern as those invasive pieces of medical equipment can play host to the deadly fungus. As the superbug contract through touch, maintaining good hand hygiene is central to controlling the transmission of the deadly fungus. In that case, given our hand hygiene habit learnt during the Covid-19 pandemic, containing the transmission of the deadly fungus should not be a problem. The bad news is, as per laboratory tests, most C. auris samples under study did not respond to commonly used anti-fungal drugs in the market. Obviously, treatment of any infection caused by this fungus would require extra care of the healthcare professionals and special guidance on the use of anti-fungal drugs.
In this context, it goes without saying that high-income nations in Europe, North America and oil-rich Middle-Eastern nations with their hospital with advanced as well as well-looked-after facilities have reported very low rates of fungus transmission compared with Bangladeshi hospitals. As could be learnt from the lead researcher of the study, according to this paper, there are clear signs of the deadly fugus spreading within our hospitals. That could be understood from the infected patients' resistance to common anti-fungal drugs. It calls for the health authority's especial attention to this new threat to public health. Urgent measures need to be taken to monitor and contain spread of the deadly fungus.
