Superbug Candida Auris

In News

According to the study carried out by the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, Delhi, a deadly superbug identified for the first time in the coast of South Andaman district in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Candida Auris

• Candida Auris is a type of fungus that belongs to the Superbug Candida Auris of the Metschnikowia Ceae family of the order Saccharomycetales.
• Origin: Earlier, it was first identified in 2009 in a patient in Japan. The closest known relative of C.auris is C. haemulonii, which was first discovered in 1962 from the gut of a blue-striped grunt fish, the skin of dolphins, and the seawater off the coast of Portugal.
• It is a multidrug resistant pathogen that presents “a serious global threat to human health.
  • Antimicrobial resistance is resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial drug that was originally effective for treatment of infections caused by it.
• Vulnerability to humans: The C.auris can be deadly for immunocompromised patients.
  • The fungus is deadly when it enters the bloodstream, or inhabits the body of a patient suffering from a serious disease such as cancer.
  • The C.auris’ thermal and salinity tolerance is because of its adaptation to global warming, which makes the human body more susceptible as a host.

Superbugs

• Microorganisms that have become resistant to battery of antibiotic drugs after their prolonged exposure to antibiotics.
  • Hence, the medicines become ineffective and infections persist in the body, increasing the risk of spread to others.
• Overuse (consuming more antibiotics than prescribed) and Misuse (taking prescribed antibiotics incorrectly or taking antibiotics to treat viral infection) of antibiotics are the major reason for formation of Superbugs. Human consumption of antibiotic-treated chicken and livestock further increases resistance.
• Few prominent superbugs highlighted by WHO are MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Klebsiella, E. coli.
• Klebsiella Bacteria has recently developed resistance to a powerful class of antibiotics called carbapenems.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently provided a list of twelve “Superbugs” which pose an enormous threat to human health.

Source- IE