Retrospective analysis of the clinical characteristics of Candida auris infection cases over a 10-year period

Candida auris is an emerging multidrug-resistant fungus with a high mortality rate. The first case of Candida auris infection was reported in 2009 and since then infections have been reported in nearly 40 countries. The fungus now represents a major global public health threat. We analyzed cases from the emergence of Candida auris infections up until the end of 2019. PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched for all papers related to Candida auris infections up until 31 December 2019. We organized these data into the following categories: date of publication, patient age and gender, underlying diseases, risk factors for infection, patient mortality information, drug sensitivity information of Candida auris isolates, and genetic classification. The χ 2 test was used to screen for factors that may affect patient mortality before logistic regression analysis was used to further assess the suspected influencing factors to determine if they represent independent factors for patient mortality. Information pertaining to 542 patients was included. There were more male patients than female patients and the mortality rate was higher in males than females. A high proportion of patients were premature babies and elderly people. The proportions of patients with underlying diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease, and ear disease were also high. 65% of patients had a history in ICU and 60% were given broad-spectrum antibiotics. Logistic regression analysis revealed that kidney disease (P<0.05) and tumors (P<0.05) are independent factors that affect mortality in Candida auris infected patients. Patients infected with echinocandin-resistant Candida auris ultimately die.