Candida auris infection or colonisation

Statutory notification

• Candida auris colonisation or infection is notifiable in Western Australia.
• See notifiable disease case definitions (Word 1.29MB)
• All notifications are made by the pathology laboratory identifying a Candida auris isolate.*
• Private and public laboratories that identify Candida auris are required to refer all isolates to the Mycology Department at PathWest Fiona Stanley Hospital.
• See also description of Statutory medical notifications in Western Australia.

Public health management

Important information

• Infectious agent: The yeast Candida auris.
• Transmission: Person-to-person through direct contact with an infected or colonised person or the contaminated hands of a healthcare worker, or indirectly from contact with contaminated environmental surfaces or medical equipment. Candida auris can persist in the environment and survive on surfaces for prolonged periods.
• Incubation period: Variable.
• Infectious period: Currently the period of communicability is unknown, and all patients who are colonised or infected should be considered to be colonised and potentially infectious indefinitely.
• Case exclusion: Do not exclude. Healthcare facility patients colonised or infected with Candida auris should be managed in a single room with dedicated bathroom facilities as per the Guidelines for the Screening and Management of Multi-resistant Organisms in Healthcare Facilities.
• Contact exclusion: Do not exclude.
• Treatment: Antifungal treatment for clinical infection as recommended by an infectious diseases physician or clinical microbiologist.
• Immunisation: None available.
• Case follow-up: Is conducted by hospitals and the Communicable Disease Control Directorate, as required.

Information for GPs and other healthcare providers 

• Candida auris is often resistant to antifungal medication, causing invasive infections, most commonly in hospitalised patients with significant comorbidities.
• Candida auris has been detected worldwide including in WA and is responsible for several large hospital outbreaks in intensive care units and other critical care settings overseas.
• Candida auris – information for consumers (Healthy WA)

Management in healthcare facilities

• Guidelines for the Screening and Management of Multi-resistant Organisms in Healthcare Facilities

Notifiable disease data and reports

Candida auris infection or colonisation is a notifiable condition via laboratory notification in WA. Private and public laboratories are required to forward all isolates of Candida auris to the Mycology Department, PathWest Laboratory Medicine Western Australia (LMWA) at Fiona Stanley Hospital for further molecular typing and notification to the National Critical Antimicrobial Resistances (CARAlert). Candida auris surveillance data are therefore reported separately to other notifiable disease data.