Background: Candida auris (C. auris) is an emerging fungus pathogen associated with nosocomial infections that is seen as a serious global health issue. Aim: To describe the epidemiology and features of hospital-acquired Candida auris outbreaks in the Ministry of Health hospitals (MOH). Methods: A three-year (2020–2022) retrospective analysis of Candida auris outbreaks in the Saudi MOH hospitals. A total of 45 hospitals were involved, with 511 cases of Candida auris. The data collected from the General Directorate of Infection Prevention and Control (GDIPC) platform comprises all patients’ data for C. auris instances, whether infected or colonized. Results: Out of the 511 Candida auris recruited cases, 291 (56.9%) were infected, whereas 220 (43.1%) were colonized. 32.9% of cases were above the age of 65, and 68.9% were male. The majority of cases were admitted in the ICU unit (95.5%). Approximately 18.8% of cases were diabetes, and 18.5% were hypertensive. Central lines were discovered in 37.7% of the cases. Approximately 85.9% of cases had Foley catheters, 68.5% were on ventilators, and 53.8% had a tracheostomy. The crude mortality rate was particularly high (41.5%) among the study cases. It was non-significantly higher among infected individuals (44.7%) than colonized patients (37.3%) at (p value = 0.093). The prevalence of hypertension (p = 0.001), DM (p = 0.003), and peripheral line insertion (p = 0.004) was significantly higher among colonized patients. While the presence of COVID-19 (p = 0.001), and central line insertion (p = 0.001) was significantly higher among infected patients. Conclusion: C. auris is a new pathogen that causes hospital outbreaks. Strict adherence to infection prevention and control criteria established by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and GDPIC has significantly contained and reduced the spread of these outbreaks. One-month retrospective surveillance before diagnosing the index case and a prospective surveillance strategy for at least three months is highly recommended.

The care of children with cerebral palsy (CP) requires a complex system of care that is not only dependent on health care resources, but is also strongly influenced by social and cultural attributes. Hence, it is important to explore the understanding and practices of caregivers within a regional perspective. This study was conducted to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and behavior (KAB) of parents with children diagnosed with CP in Saudi Arabia. A cross sectional survey was conducted on the caregivers of children with CP admitted for inpatient rehabilitation between October 2023 to January 2024. A total of 216 caregivers participated in this survey. About 82.9% of caregivers were the mothers of CP children, half (50.5%) were ≤36 years old, 53.7% were highly educated, and 89.2% lived in urban areas. More than half of the participants (57.7%) owned their homes. Regarding children, spastic quadriplegia was the most common type (46.3% of cases). Overall, the participants recorded good values for all variables for KAB. The mean value for attitude was higher (2.67 ± 0.20) when compared to behavior (2.49 ± 0.36) and knowledge (2.46 ± 0.25). Participants who had children with spastic quadriplegia CP reported lower behavior scores than their peers. Strategies with a special emphasis on improving the behaviors of caregivers for children with quadriplegia need to be adapted. Similarly, the living situations of families need to be taken into consideration given its significant association with the attitude of caregivers. A considerable lack of knowledge in handling emergency situations by caregivers signifies a gap in care, which could have potentially life-threatening consequences.