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Accelerated Increase in Candida auris Bloodstream Infections during COVID-19 Pandemic, South Africa
Husna Ismail, Olga Perovic, Ruth Mpembe, Warren Lowman, Chetna Govind, Pieter Ekermans, Waasila Jassat, Richard Welch, and Nelesh P. Govender
Author affiliation: National Institute for Communicable Diseases, a Division of the National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa (H. Ismail, O. Perovic, R. Mpembe, W. Jassat, R. Welch, N.P. Govender); University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (R. Mpembe, W. Lowman, N.P. Govender); Vermaak and Partners/Pathcare Pathologists, Pretoria, South Africa (W. Lowman); Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, Johannesburg (W. Lowman); Lancet Laboratories, Durban, South Africa (C. Govind); Ampath Microbiology National Reference Laboratory, Centurion, South Africa (P. Ekermans)
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Figure 4

Figure 4. Numbers of Candida auris and C. parapsilosis BSIs, COVID-19 cases, and COVID-19 hospital admissions, by month, in study of accelerated increase in C. auris BSIs during COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa, January 2019–June 2022. Light red bars represent cases of C. auris BSI (private n = 3,507; public n = 421), light gray bars represent cases of C. parapsilosis BSI (private n = 4,742; public n = 1,338), orange shading represents total number of COVID-19 cases (N = 3,995,881), blue shading represents number of COVID-19 hospital admissions (private n = 231,814; public n = 254,975), dark red dotted line represents 30-day moving average for C. auris, and dark gray dotted line represents 30-day moving average for C. parapsilosis. BSI, bloodstream infection.
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Page created: February 07, 2026
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