A SCOTS scientist has helped spearhead research that has found that a widely used disinfectant may be used to tackle a deadly form of a drug-resistant superbug that has caused hospital outbreaks and deaths across the world.
Dr Leighann Sherry, of Glasgow University, is part of a team who found in laboratory experiments that Candida auris, a recently-discovered human fungal pathogen, is sensitive to the disinfectant most widely used to sterilise surgical instruments.
Researchers had found the ability of Candida auris to form "bio-films" made it resistant to most drugs used for the treatment of severe fungal infections.
They also discovered that normal concentrations of the skin disinfectant chlorhexidine were active against the Candida auris bio-films.
The disinfectant is standard use in hospitals to sterilise instruments and wipe patients’ skin before surgery.
The researchers said it could mean a breakthrough for doctors trying to control the spread of infection in hospitals.
Working with experts in Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol, medical mycologist Dr Sherry compared Candida auris with other Candida species commonly causing infections in humans.
She discovered it had the ability to form the bio-films, or impermeable layers of micro-organisms.
She said: “These features not only contribute to its virulence, but also to its survival in hospital environments, increasing its ability to cause outbreaks.”
Candida auris was first reported in 2009 in a case in Japan.
More recently, it has been associated with life threatening invasive diseases such as pericarditis - swelling around the heart - and bloodstream and wound infections.
It has caused hospital outbreaks in America, India, Kuwait, Pakistan, Venezuela and Colombia, and in a UK intensive care unit, where 20 per cent of patients found to be carry Candida auris developed a bloodstream infection, which often results in long hospital stays, high medical costs, and poor outcomes.
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