While catheters cannot technically have a yeast infection, yeast often grows on them and can lead to a potentially dangerous infection in patients. The yeast Candida albicans can live in a drug-resistant aggregate of microorganisms, or biofilm, forming an often unnoticeable coating on medical devices that may enter patients? bloodstreams and can be fatal.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a novel coating for those instruments that greatly diminishes fungal growth and may lead to far fewer infections. Their work was reported online in late July in the journal Biomacromolecules.