Fighting Fungus: Miller School Hosts Candida Auris Conference
Summary
- A conference hosted by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine brought together top experts who study Candida auris and treat infected patients.
- It was the first national conference since the resurgence of C. auris.
- Attendees celebrated advancements that have been made in the fight against the fungus, such as PCR testing that marked a leap in containment efforts and the use of whole genome sequencing that allowed them to track organism evolvement and resistance.
A two-day conference hosted by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Division of infectious Diseases brought together top experts across disciplines who study Candida auris and treat infected patients.
The first national conference since the resurgence of the organism drew stakeholders nationwide who represented state Departments of Health, health systems and community partners from Utah to New York. They shared ideas and posed questions to one another as they considered next steps.
What is Candida Auris?
The fungus is a stubborn one that requires an interdisciplinary approach, and the Miller School has led the way, said conference organizer Bhavarth Shukla, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor in the Miller School’s Division of Infectious Diseases and medical director of infection control at UHealth – University of Miami Health System.
“We are looking at the clinical side of patient outcomes, but we also do research with environmental scientists on the Gables campus and molecular scientists on the medical campus,” he said. “We are showing how working in an interdisciplinary way can have a positive impact.”
Candida auris, a fungus that first surfaced in the ear of a Japanese patient in 2009, has relentlessly spread across the country since its discovery here in 2016, fueled by its resistance to many antifungals and disinfectants.
“We will only be able to combat Candida auris if you come together as a group,” said Tanira Ferreira, M.D., Miller School associate professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine and chief medical officer of University of Miami Hospital and Clinics. “It’s very resistant to treatment, it’s resistant to disinfectants, it’s very easily transmitted and it colonizes the skin. So I’m excited to see the experts coming together from different parts of the country to see how to best combat this.”
C. Auris as a Priority
Candida auris has become a health care priority due to a noted an increase in cases in the United States over the last several years. Cases have been reported with atypical exposures from jails and nail salons, and are important to track to better understand the disease’s changing epidemiology.
The experts at the conference lauded advancements that have been made in the fight against the fungus, such as the development of real-time PCR testing that marked a leap in containment efforts and the use of whole genome sequencing that allowed them to track organism evolvement and resistance.
Another promising development has been the use of wastewater surveillance to track outbreaks, a method that managed to detect one positive case in a sewer shed. Identifying disinfectants that kill the fungus was a game changer.
Moving forward, experts hope to see point-of-care testing and new treatment and infection control options. They pondered challenges such as how to raise awareness to gain a better understanding of community transmission patterns, how to best communicate to the public with little information about general risk and how to handle people who are colonized. Medical management of colonized people is particularly difficult, Dr. Lyman said.
“We don’t have good surveillance on what people are being treated with and how they’re doing,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a great universal understanding of outcomes and treatment.”
Tags: Division of Infectious Diseases, Dr. Bhavarth Shukla, Dr. Tanira Ferreira, Infectious diseases