US reports outbreak of 'untreatable' fungus Candida auris. All you need to know
A cluster of 101 Candida auris cases detected at the Washington DC nursing home included three cases that were resistant to all three kinds of antifungal medications.
US health officials on Thursday reported cases of untreatable fungus in two Dallas-area hospitals and a nursing home in Washington DC. Candida auris, a harmful form of yeast, is considered dangerous to hospital and nursing home patients with serious medical problems as it can cause bloodstream infection and even death.
CDC’s Meghan Ryan said they are witnessing “clustering of resistance” for the first time in which patients seemed to be contracting infections from each other. A cluster of 101 Candida auris cases detected at the Washington DC nursing home included three cases that were resistant to all three kinds of antifungal medications.
A cluster of 22 Candida auris cases in two Dallas-area hospitals included two with that level of multidrug resistance. The CDC has concluded that the infections were spread from patient to patient, unlike in 2019 when scientists concluded that the resistance to the drugs in three patients in New York formed during treatment.
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Why is Candida auris a serious health threat?
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one in three patients with invasive Candida auris infection die. The US health agency has termed the emerging fungus as a serious global health threat.
The CDC is concerned about the “superbug” because it is often multidrug-resistant, which means it is resistant to multiple antifungal drugs used to treat the infection. The difficulty to identify the infection using standard laboratory methods compounds the problem since misidentification may lead to wrong treatment.
How to identify a Candida auris infection?
Most people with serious Candida infections have underlying health conditions so it becomes more difficult to know if one has a Candida auris infection. Fever and chills are the most common symptoms of Candida auris infection and the symptoms do not improve even after antibiotic treatment for a suspected bacterial infection, as per the CDC.
Scientists are still trying to figure out why Candida auris infections are resistant to antifungal medicines and why they started causing infections in recent years.
