Candida auris was first identified in 2009 in Japan.3 Outbreaks have since surfaced around the world. C. auris can cause severe disease and spread among compromised patients in health care facilities. (It is not a threat to healthy populations.) This yeast may also be quite resistant to the usual antifungal treatments.
According to Westblade4,5:
Characteristics
- Not much is known about how it presents in tissue
- Rapid grower (within 5 days)
- Growth inhibited by cycloheximide (Mycosel agar)
- Cream-colored, smooth colonies on Sabaraud dextrose agar
- Growth at 25°C, 37°C, and 42°C
- Growth on CHROMagar™ Candida Plus: may be useful in presumptively identifying C. auris (but ID must be confirmed with another method)
- Microscopic: Narrow-based budding, round/ellipsoid cells, rudimentary pseudohyphae
- Isolates are generally resistant to fluconazole, and sometimes to amphotericin B
To identify
- MALDI-TOF MS and nucleic acid-based methods work well.
Biochemical methods and systems
- Easy to mistake C. auris for other yeasts, making treatment difficult
Differential characteristics of importance
- C. auris grows at 42°C
- Growth on cycloheximide
5. Westblade LF, Burd EM, Lockhart SR, Procop GW. Larone's Medically Important Fungi: A Guide to Identification, 7th Edition. ASM Press; August 2023.
