Investigating transmission pathways of a nosocomially transmitted fungal infection

Abstract

This thesis investigates the transmission dynamics of nosocomial fungal infections such as Candida auris, a multidrug-resistant pathogen increasingly observed in intensive care units (ICUs)-using both deterministic and stochastic (continuous-time Markov chain, CTMC) modelling approaches. Our compartmental framework includes patients, healthcare workers (HCWs), and the ICU environment, capturing multiple transmission pathways between these vectors. We examine outbreak dynamics through extinction analysis, basic reproduction number, sensitivity testing, and two-dimensional parameter interaction heatmaps. Our results show that environmental contamination and undetected infectious patients are primary drivers of transmission, with patient-origin outbreaks showing low extinction probabilities.