File photo. [AP]
Greece ranks second in the European Union for Candida auris infections, with 852 cases recorded over the past decade, according to a new report from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) released on Thursday. Only Spain has reported more cases. The drug-resistant fungus spreads rapidly in hospitals and attacks critically ill patients.
Over 4,000 cases have been reported EU-wide in the past decade, with 1,346 cases in 2023 alone – the highest number since the fungus was first detected in Europe in 2014.
“There is a percentage of patients who might have been able to overcome their hospitalization illness, but didn’t make it due to infection from this fungus,” said Diamantis Plachouras, the ECDC’s deputy director for microbial resistance and healthcare-associated infections. During an April 2024 ECDC visit to Greece, officials found the fungus had spread throughout the health system, with hundreds of cases in multiple hospitals.