\n
\n <\/p>\n\n Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on
.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n “
We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.<\/strong> <\/p>\nBack to Healio<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\nKey takeaways:<\/h2>\n\nPresenters described how a South Korean hospital ended a 34-month C. auris <\/i>outbreak in the PICU.<\/li>\nSurveillance, cleaning and relocating patients were key to ending the outbreak.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nCHICAGO \u2014 A combination of surveillance, enhanced cleaning and relocating colonized patients was the formula for ending a nearly 3-year-long Candida auris <\/i>outbreak in a pediatric ICU in South Korea.<\/p>\n
In a poster presentation at SHEA Spring, Hye-Jin Ki, RN, BSN, <\/b>detailed how staff at Yonsei University College of Medicine\u2019s Severance Hospital ended a 34-month C. auris <\/i>outbreak in the 10-bed PICU.<\/p>\n
\n
From January 2023 through June 2025, clinicians identified 28 C. auris <\/i>isolates from 27 patients in the pediatric ICU, all of which were resistant to fluconazole and amphotericin B. <\/p>\n
Most of the isolates (n = 20) were detected in urine, five were detected in blood (including four cases of candidemia) and three were detected through swabs or other sources. Out of the 20 urine isolates, 85% were associated with Foley catheters, and all five blood isolates were associated with central venous catheters.<\/p>\n
There were two peaks in incidence density \u2014 the first in October 2023 (16.95 per 1,000 patient-days) and the second in June 2025 (13.89 per 1,000 patient-days). During the second peak, hospital staff employed a three-pronged approach to control the outbreak, which involved surveillance, cleaning and source control.<\/p>\n
Surveillance efforts included point prevalence surveys, environmental culturing of medical devices and whole genome sequencing of isolates to determine whether the fungus was spreading through different units.<\/p>\n
The researchers discovered that medical devices were still contaminated after routine cleaning, so the hospital increased the number of cleaning staff and had them clean three times daily with 5,000 ppm sodium hypochlorite to disinfect devices. The staff were monitored for their compliance with the enhanced cleaning.<\/p>\n
Source control efforts involved relocating colonized patients to general wards to decrease patient density in the PICU. The researchers noted that relocating patients did not lead to any secondary transmission outside the PICU.<\/p>\n
After implementing increased surveillance and prevention strategies, the hospital spent 5 months with zero cases and declared the C. auris<\/i> outbreak over in October 2025.<\/p>\n\n
\n
Perspective<\/h2>\n Back to Top
\n
\n
\n <\/div>\n
A worst-case scenario for any children\u2019s hospital is an outbreak of a highly drug-resistant yeast such as Candida auris<\/default:i> in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Infants and children are particularly vulnerable to invasive candidiasis, and C. auris<\/default:i> is notoriously resilient \u2014 often extremely difficult to eradicate from the health care environment. The prolonged outbreak at Severance Hospital in South Korea exemplifies the magnitude of this challenge.<\/default:p>In response, the hospital implemented an aggressive, multifaceted infection control strategy, including genomic surveillance, intensified environmental decontamination and the proactive relocation of colonized patients to general wards to reduce clinical density within the PICU. These interventions collectively demonstrate that even severe outbreaks can be controlled with coordinated efforts.<\/default:p>Genomic surveillance has emerged as an essential tool for tracking transmission and limiting the spread of C. auris<\/default:i>. Likewise, environmental cleaning plays a critical role and often requires enhanced measures, such as the use of more potent disinfectants, increased cleaning frequency and ultraviolet-C (UV-C) disinfection. Notably, the relocation of colonized patients to less vulnerable hospital units represents a pragmatic and ethically defensible strategy under outbreak conditions.<\/default:p>Ultimately, prevention remains the most effective approach. Avoiding outbreaks requires rigorous screening, continuous surveillance and strict adherence to isolation precautions. Until more effective antifungal therapies become widely available, limiting the transmission of C. auris<\/default:i> within health care settings should remain a top institutional priority. Achieving this goal depends on robust infection prevention programs supported by microbiology laboratories capable of delivering timely genomic surveillance and phylogenetic analysis. Pathogens may continually outmaneuver us, but this should only strengthen our resolve to deploy our technologies and collective ingenuity in response. This is, and will remain, an endless contest.<\/default:p><\/p>\n\n
Shaun Yang, PhD, DABMM, FIDSA, MLS(ASCP)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Disclosures: <\/strong> Yang reports no relevant financial disclosures.
\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Sources\/Disclosures<\/h3>\n Source: <\/h2>\n Ki HJ, et al. Poster 221. Controlling a Candida auris Outbreak in a Pediatric ICU: Impact of Genomic Surveillance, Disinfection, and Unit-Level Source Control. Presented at: SHEA Spring; April 7-10, 2026; Chicago.<\/p>\n
\n
Disclosures: <\/strong>
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Ask a clinical question<\/strong> and tap into Healio AI’s knowledge<\/strong> base.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nPubMed, enrolling\/recruiting trials, guidelines<\/li>\n
<\/p>\n
Clinical Guidance, Healio CME, FDA news<\/li>\n
<\/p>\n
Healio’s exclusive daily news coverage of clinical data<\/li>\n
\n <\/ul>\n
Learn more<\/button>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n