A recently published study in the American Journal of Infection Control advocates for health care facilities to initiate or increase admission screening for Candida auris based on community prevalence rates. This recommendation comes from a team led by Aaron Cheng, MPH, from Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York City. Their study explores the potential benefits of extending a C. auris admission screening protocol at an acute care hospital to include all patients coming from any skilled nursing facility.
The study focused on a total of 591 patients who were screened on admission for C. auris from January 2022 to September 2023. They discovered a total of 14 patients with C. auris, representing 2.4% of those screened. Among the identified cases, nine were characterized as high-risk due to the patients’ compromise of having tracheostomies or being ventilator dependent, while five cases were considered low-risk. Remarkably, eight of these cases would not have been identified under the previous screening protocol.
The coauthor of the study, Scott Lorin, MD, of Mount Sinai Brooklyn and Icahn Mount Sinai, underlined the necessity for expanded screening protocols in his statement. He stressed that broader screening helps to identify cases early, leading to targeted precautions and thus lowering the risk of hospital-based outbreaks. Furthermore, he asserts that by implementing proactive protocols relative to community prevalence rates, we provide a crucial tool in controlling the spread of C. auris, which he identifies as an ascending global health threat.