How is the drug-resistant fungus, Candida auris, spreading across hospitals in America?

In a March 20 statement, the CDC said new data showed that the fungus “spread at an alarming rate in US healthcare facilities” in 2020 and 2021.

Clinical cases in the country tripled, from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021.

Here’s what you need to know about this deadly super mushroom:

Candida auris is a genus of yeast, a family of fungi that contains species that are very useful to humans for activities such as bread making and beer brewing, but there are also species that cause infections in humans.

Candida auris was first discovered in the ear canal of a patient at the Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital in 2009, which led to the fungus being named after it, as the word auris is Latin for ear.

Most of the time, the fungus lives on our skin without causing problems, but it can cause infections if we are not healthy or if it gets to the wrong place, like our bloodstream or lungs.

Candida auris often causes bloodstream infections, but it can also affect the respiratory system, central nervous system, and internal organs, as well as the skin.

These infections are usually very serious.

“The biggest problem with these fungi is their resistance to the drugs we have,” said Dr. Tina Joshi, assistant professor of molecular biology at the University of Plymouth in the UK.

“But another problem is that recognizing Candida auris infection is very difficult and can easily be confused with other fungi, which can lead to the wrong treatment.”

Transmission is mainly through contaminated surfaces in hospitals, sticking to intravenous tubes and blood pressure measuring devices, and Dr. Neil Stone, a fungicide expert at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Kings College London, says that cleaning surfaces is very difficult.

The solution is often to close entire wards.

“It’s the most worrisome fungus that we ignore despite the dangers it poses,” Dr. Stone said.

“It could shut down entire healthcare systems,” he added.

It is very unlikely that you will catch a Candida auris infection in your daily life.

The risk is higher if you stay in the hospital for a long time or if you’re in a nursing home, and patients in intensive care are more likely to develop a Candida auris infection, according to the CDC.

Resistance to common antifungal drugs, such as fluconazole, has been observed in the majority of Candida auris strains.

This means that these drugs do not work for Candida auris. For this reason, less common antifungal drugs have been used to treat infections, but Candida auris has now developed resistance to these drugs as well.

And DNA evidence shows that antifungal resistance genes in Candida auris are very similar to those in the very common Candida albans.

This indicates that resistance genes may have been passed from one species to another.

A 2019 study published in the journal mBio of the American Society for Microbiology indicated that the reason behind the spread of Candida infections may be because these species are forced to live in higher temperatures due to climate change.

Most fungi prefer the cooler temperatures found in the soil. But as global temperatures rise, Candia auris has had to adapt to higher temperatures.

This may have made it easier for fungi to thrive in the human body, which is warm at 36°C to 37°C.

Better understanding who is most susceptible to infection with Candida auris is the first step towards reducing the number of infections.

“We are behind in terms of studying fungi,” said Dr. Joshi.

“I’m not surprised at all, we’re now forced to catch up,” he added.

And health care professionals need to know that people who spend extended periods of time in hospitals or nursing homes or those with weakened immune systems are at greater risk.

Not all hospitals identify Candida auris in the same way. Sometimes they are confused with other fungal infections, such as thrush, and given the wrong treatment.

Improving diagnosis will help identify patients infected with H. pylori early, which means giving appropriate treatment, and preventing the spread of infection to other patients.

But above all, infection prevention efforts must be improved, Dr. Joshi said.

“The main measure is infection prevention and control, because we have already seen how difficult it is to treat what is happening to patients,” he added.

“Hospitals must be at the forefront of disinfection and cleaning,” he said.

not exactly. In its first-ever list of “priority pathogens” for fungi, published last October, the World Health Organization identified no fewer than 19 fungi that pose a significant threat to public health.

Candida auris was one of four fungi that appeared in the “critical priority” group, with the World Health Organization describing it as “intrinsically resistant to most available antifungals”.