Mechanisms of Candida auris Transmission within the Healthcare Environment

The authors found high concentrations in the skin swabs of colonized residents that often exceeded 10⁶-10⁷ cells/mL. They then evaluated the relationship between C. auris concentrations in these skin swabs and their associated environmental samples with Kendall’s tau-b (τ_b) correlation, which showed a strong, positive, and statistically significant relationship for both culture-dependent (τ_b = 0.536, p = 0.0004) and culture-independent (τ_b = 0.657, p = 3.832e^-6) data. 

C. auris colonized patients can have very high burden on their skin. This bioburden is positively correlated with the C. auris concentrations on associated surfaces. These findings support the shedding hypothesis and provide a new perspective to focus infection control efforts