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Candida and staphylococcus are two fairly common isolates of bloodstream infections, as well as part of our own microbiome. These two organisms also instill the fear of God into me, given how sticky they can be. I’ve talked a lot about staphylococcus and endocarditis in general, so candida endocarditis gets the spotlight for this post.
Echinocandins. This is the drug we use mostly on the inpatient side for invasive candidiasis. The most well known is micafungin, but analdafungin is another option that is also commonly used. Besides resistance, the issue with echinocandins are the fact they are intravenous drugs, which makes administration of it easy on the inpatient side but
Ear yeast! That is the translation of Candida auris. It was discovered by isolation from an ear infection in an elderly patient in Japan in 2009 and since then it has been isolated in places such as India, southeast Asia and several parts of south America (1-4): One of the defining characteristics is its resistance
Disseminated candida infections kill. It shouldn’t be terribly surprising. In the ICU, ongoing fevers despite antibiotic therapy is usually taken as a sign of invasive candidiasis and is the impetus for antifungal therapy. Risk stratifying patients for candidal infections can be difficult, given the myriad of comorbid conditions that are associated with these infections. Despite
Infective endocarditis is a rare enough disease in and of itself that many folks won’t see much of in their lifetimes, though the rise in IV drug abuse means this may not be the case in the future. Staphylococcus aureus and streptococci, as well as enterococci, tend to be the most common organisms associated with
Dr. Germophile 