Victorian health authorities are on a "search and destroy" mission after a rare fungal superbug, which has previously spread to more than a dozen countries, was found on the skin of a 70-year-old man.
Authorities believe he contracted the bug, called Candida auris, after visiting a hospital in the United Kingdom, and was then discovered during a hospital visit in Melbourne.
Victoria's deputy chief health officer, Dr Brett Sutton, said the man had been colonised by the bug, but was not infected.
"At the moment we're confident that, because he's been cared for in a single room, that the chances of an outbreak within our hospital systems is really very low," Dr Sutton said.
Patients who are infected by the bug can suffer serious bloodstream, wound and ear infections.
Dr Sutton said infection control was now the main priority, with authorities undertaking intense cleaning and disinfection at the hospital.
"We've got no evidence of spread but we're going through a process now of screening a number of his contacts on the wards to see whether there's been any possibility of spread," he said.
Candida auris was first discovered in 2009 in Japan and according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, there has been one case reported in Australia.
The bug survives on cooler skin and surfaces, which amplifies the risk of it spreading in hospital and between patients.
It's also resistant to the main medications used to treat similar bugs.
"That makes it a superbug in the real sense," Dr Sutton said.
"It means that some people who get invasive infections like blood poisoning may well die from that infection because it's effectively untreatable or very difficult to treat."
However Dr Sutton urged people to stay calm.
"It's a danger for people who are vulnerable, if they've got significant, pre-existing illness," he said.
"But for fit and healthy people, for visitors to hospitals, they don't need to worry about it."
