December 30, 2021 3:40 a.m. 

The Oregon Health Authority is investigating the state’s first case of Candida auris, a serious fungal infection that is often resistant to multiple antifungal medicines.

OHA said the Healthcare-Associated Infections program at the OHA Public Health Division, working with a regional public health laboratory in Seattle and Salem Hospital, have identified Candida auris in 3 Salem Health patients. The first case was detected at Salem Hospital December 11th in a patient who had recent international health care exposures and was confirmed December 17th. Candida auris has only recently appeared in the United States.

OHA said 2 of the cases did not have international health care exposures, but had epidemiologic links to the first case, indicating health care-associated spread of Candida auris to the second and third patients – identified December 23rd and December 27th respectively.

Jasmin Chaudhary, medical director of infection prevention at Salem Health, said the health system is taking action on a number of fronts to prevent the spread of Candida auris at Salem Hospital.

Chaudhary said, “With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a rise in multi-drug resistant organisms around the world and nationwide and Salem is not immune”. She said they are working with the OHA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to execute a rigorous plan, implementing aggressive eradication measures that have been shown in other hospitals to be successful in eliminating Candida auris. Chaudhary said these include proactive steps that will assist in preemptively identifying new cases to prevent spread.

Learn more about the infection at: https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/candida-auris/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery