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Critically ill COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit are at risk of developing invasive candidiasis. In this study we aimed to (1) characterize oral cultivable mycobiota of mechanically ventilated adult COVID-19 patients in an ICU setting by sampling four distinct oral niches in two fixed time points with regards to oral health status, (2) investigate Candida spp. infections in this population, and (3) compare oral mycobiota with selected bacteriobiota strains during the observation in the ICU. We recruited 56 adult COVID-19 patients who qualified for mechanical ventilation. Patients received either standard or extended oral care procedures with tooth brushing. Oral samples were taken first within 36 h and after 7 days of intubation. Yeast-like fungi were identified by MALDI/TOF mass spectrometry. Yeast infection cases were retrospectively analyzed. Candida spp. in oral sampling was identified in 80.4% and 75.7%, C. albicans in 57.1% and 61.1%, and non-albicans Candida species in 48.2% and 47.2% patients at baseline and follow-up, respectively. There were no differences in the overall CFU counts of Candida spp. species and individual Candida species in oral samples, both at baseline and follow-up. At baseline, a higher prevalence of Candida spp. was associated with a higher identification rate of Lactobacillus spp. (64.4% vs. 27.3%, p = 0.041). At follow-up, there was a borderline lower prevalence of Candida spp. in patients with Lactobacillus spp. identified (57.1% vs. 87.0%, p = 0.057). The incidence rate of candidiasis was 5.4% and the incidence density was 3.1/1000 pds. In conclusion, non-albicans Candida species in oral samples were identified in nearly half of patients. Oral health was moderately impaired. A high incidence of yeast infections, including invasive cases, in patients hospitalized in the ICU due to COVID-19 and requiring mechanical ventilation was noted. Severe COVID-19 and disease-specific interventions within the ICU possibly played a major role promoting Candida spp. infections.

Background: Hospital equipment made from copper alloys can play an important role in complementing traditional methods of disinfection. Aims of the study: The aim of this study was to assess the dynamics of the antimicrobial properties of selected copper alloys in different simulations of environmental conditions (with organic contamination vs. without organic contamination), and to test alternatives to the currently used testing methods. Materials and Methods: A modification of Japanese standard JIS Z 2801 as well as Staphylococcus aureus (SA) and Escherichia coli (EC) suspended in NaCl vs. tryptic soy broth (TSB) were used in tests performed on seven commonly used copper alloys, copper, and stainless steel. Results: A much faster reduction of the bacterial suspension was observed for the inoculum prepared in NaCl than in TSB. A faster reduction for EC than for SA was observed in the inoculum prepared in NaCl. The opposite results were found for the inoculum based on TSB. A significant correlation between the copper concentration in the copper alloys and the time and degree of bacterial suspension reduction was only observed in the case of EC. Conclusions: This study confirmed the antimicrobial properties of copper alloys, and additionally showed that Staphylococcus aureus was more resistant than Escherichia coli in the variant of the experiment without organic contamination. However, even for SA, a total reduction of the bacterial inoculum’s density took no longer than 2 h. Under conditions simulating organic contamination, all of the tested alloys were shown to have bactericidal or bacteriostatic properties, which was contrary to the results from stainless steel.