Candida auris is a globally emerging multidrug resistant fungal pathogen causing nosocomial transmission. We report an ongoing outbreak of C. auris in a London cardio-thoracic center between April 2015 and July 2016. This is the first report of C. auris in Europe and the largest outbreak so far. We describe the identification, investigation and implementation of control measures. Data on C. auris case demographics, environmental screening, implementation of infection prevention/control measures, and antifungal susceptibility of patient isolates were prospectively recorded then analysed retrospectively. Speciation of C. auris was performed by MALDI-TOF and typing of outbreak isolates performed by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). This report describes an ongoing outbreak of 50 C. auris cases over the first 16 month (April 2015 to July 2016) within a single Hospital Trust in London. A total of 44 % (n = 22/50) patients developed possible or proven C. auris infection with a candidaemia rate of 18 % (n = 9/50). Environmental sampling showed persistent presence of the yeast around bed space areas. Implementation of strict infection and prevention control measures included: isolation of cases and their contacts, wearing of personal protective clothing by health care workers, screening of patients on affected wards, skin decontamination with chlorhexidine, environmental cleaning with chorine based reagents and hydrogen peroxide vapour. Genotyping with AFLP demonstrated that C. auris isolates from the same geographic region clustered. This ongoing outbreak with genotypically closely related C. auris highlights the importance of appropriate species identification and rapid detection of cases in order to contain hospital acquired transmission.

Candida auris was first described in 2009, and it has since caused nosocomial outbreaks, invasive infections, and fungaemia across at least 19 countries on five continents. An outbreak of C. auris ...

To assess and compare the current trends in bacteraemia and antimicrobial resistance and analyse the impact of ciprofloxacin prescribing on Gram-negative bacterial resistance in haematology and oncology patients. Information on bacteraemia episodes, causative pathogens, antimicrobial resistance and consumption was compared between haematology and oncology patients at a UK cancer centre in a 14 year longitudinal surveillance study. Haematology patients had a 3-fold higher incidence of bacteraemia compared with oncology patients (10.9/1000 versus 3.6/1000 admissions, respectively). Coagulase-negative staphylococci were the most common Gram-positive cause of bacteraemia for both cancer groups, whereas the overall rate of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia was low (0.16/1000 admissions). Escherichia coli was the most common Gram-negative cause of bacteraemia for both groups, but with a higher incidence in haematology patients (0.92/1000 admissions) compared with oncology patients (0.5/1000 admissions). Pseudomonas spp. formed the second most common Gram-negative infection in haematology patients, with a 4-fold higher bacteraemia incidence compared with oncology patients (0.76 versus 0.16/1000 admissions). Ciprofloxacin resistance of Gram-negative isolates was 22% in haematology and 5% in oncology patients. The rate of ciprofloxacin use measured showed high ciprofloxacin consumption in haematology patients compared with oncology patients (3.6 versus 1.5 defined daily doses/10 admissions, respectively), suggesting that ciprofloxacin may drive resistance. Our longitudinal surveillance highlights the continued importance of Gram-negative bacteraemia, in particular that due to Pseudomonas, in the cancer population and raises concerns regarding increasing ciprofloxacin use and resistance.