{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,17]],"date-time":"2025-04-17T15:30:47Z","timestamp":1744903847253},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Pakistan Medical Association","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J Pak Med Assoc"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Candida auris a multidrug- resistant nosocomial fungal pathogen is an emerging global public health threat. Since its discovery in Japan in 2009, the fungus has now affected more than 40 countries worldwide. It is a haploid microscopic fungus belonging to the Metschnikowiaceae family in the Candida\/Clavispora clade. (1).\nMore commonly colonizing the skin, Candida auris is isolated from multiple infection sites and is generally acquired from hospital environments.\u00a0The risk factors for contracting the fungus are immunodeficiency, diabetes mellitus, elderly age, previous surgery, indwelling medical device and the use of broad- spectrum anti-microbial therapy (1,2). Unlike other\u00a0Candida\u00a0species, Candida auris is usually thermotolerant and osmotolerant which helps the pathogen to\u00a0withstand environmental stresses (2). The strains of Candida auris are resistant to common anti-fungal drugs like Fluconazole, Amphotericin B and rarely Echinocandin too, making it a significant and notorious member among other\u00a0Candida\u00a0species (1,2). According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Candida auris causes infections of bloodstream, ear and wounds. The most common symptoms of invasive infection by Candida auris are fever and chills that do not remit on antibiotic therapy.\u00a0Diagnosis is mainly based on blood and urine cultures. (3).\nRecently, a case was presented in a Public sector\u00a0tertiary care\u00a0hospital of Karachi in the paediatric age group. The patient was a six year old boy suffering with meningitis and septicemia\u00a0and was admitted first in the ICU and subsequently in the ward. The patient got discharged\u00a0after getting routine empirical therapies. The blood and urine culture taken during the stay was positive for Candida auris.\nPreviously, an outbreak reported in ICU patients in Rawalpindi in 2018 was controlled by adopting staunch measures (4). There is a paucity of recording and reporting outbreaks to the concerned health authorities in P.akistan Moreover, lack of hygiene practices followed by patients and the attendants, and poor infection control measures have caused such outbreaks.\nPakistan, a developing country with minimal resources reserved for health, coped with three invasive waves of the deadly Coronavirus\/COVID-19 pandemic. Candida auris manifests itself as a serious public health threat\u00a0for the country. The policymakers should take swift actions related to this. Some steps that we recommend are that Candida auris infection should be declared as a prioritized notifiable disease and measures instituted for prompt reporting.\n---Continue<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.47391\/jpma.5170","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,16]],"date-time":"2022-02-16T08:18:42Z","timestamp":1644999522000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Candida auris case in Karachi, a public health threat ahead"],"prefix":"10.47391","author":[{"family":"Fauzia Imtiaz","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"family":"Moeez Tariq","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"family":"Syed Noor Ul Hasan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"26547","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,16]]},"container-title":["Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association"],"original-title":[],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,16]],"date-time":"2022-02-16T08:18:42Z","timestamp":1644999522000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/ojs.jpma.org.pk\/index.php\/public_html\/article\/view\/5170"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,16]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.47391\/jpma.5170","relation":{},"ISSN":["0030-9982"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0030-9982","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,16]]}}}