(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genomic Epidemiology of Fungal Diseases 2023)Candida auris is an opportunistic human pathogen that has rapidly spread to multiple
countries and continents and has been associated with a high number of nosocomial outbreaks.
Herein, we report the first case of C. auris in Portugal, which was associated with a patient transferred
from Angola to an ICU in Portugal for liver transplantation after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. C. auris was
isolated during the course of bronchoalveolar lavage, and it was subjected to antifungal susceptibility
testing and whole-genome sequence analysis. This isolate presents low susceptibility to azoles and
belongs to the genetic clade III with a phylogenetic placement close to African isolates. Although clade
III has already been reported in Europe, taking into account the patient’s clinical history, we cannot
discard the possibility that the patient’s colonization/infection occurred in Angola, prior to admission
in the Portuguese hospital. Considering that C. auris is a fungal pathogen referenced by WHO as
a critical priority, this case reinforces the need for continuous surveillance in a hospital settingThis work was supported by funding from the European Union EU4Health Programme under grant agreement no. 101113460 (GENEO) and by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), I.P., under Individual CEEC 2022.00851.CEECIND/CP1748/CT0001.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
