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The dangerous super-drug-resistant fungus spreading through US hospitals.

2023-03-21T00:56:54.176Z


Known as Candida auris or C. auris, this potentially deadly fungus can make people with weak immune systems seriously ill. "By its nature, it has an extreme ability to survive on surfaces," warns an epidemiologist.


By Linda Carroll -

NBC News

A super drug-resistant and potentially lethal fungus

it has been spreading rapidly through some hospitals in the United States, a government study indicated.

The fungus, known as Candida auris, or C. auris, can make people with weak immune systems seriously ill.

The number of people diagnosed with the infection — as well as the number of those found to have C. auris —

has been rising at an alarming rate since the strain was reported in the United States

, US researchers said Monday. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, for its name in English).

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The increases, "especially in recent years, are really concerning," said Dr. Meghan Lyman, the study's lead author and medical director of CDC's Department of Fungal Diseases.

"We have seen increases not only in areas where there was already transmission, but also in new ones."

The CDC advisory, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine medical journal, comes as Mississippi is battling a growing outbreak of the fungus.

Since November, at least 12 people have been infected with C. auris with "potentially four deaths" associated with the fungus, according to a statement from the state Department of Health, Mississippi Today reported.

At the center of the infections in the state is a long-term care facility, although lower numbers of cases have been reported at other medical centers in the state.

The Candida auris fungus can be found on the skin and throughout the body, the CDC explained.

It is not a threat to healthy people, but a third of those who got it died.Getty Images

The fungus can be found on the skin and throughout the body, the CDC explained.

It is not a threat to healthy people, but

a third of those infected with C. auris died.

In the CDC report, the researchers analyzed data from state and local health departments on people infected with the fungus from 2016 to December 31, 2021, including those who were "colonized," in other words, not they were sick but carried the fungus on their bodies with the potential to pass it on to others who might be more vulnerable to it.

The number of infections increased by 59%, to 756, from 2019 to 2020, and then a further 95%, to 1,471, in 2021.

The researchers also discovered that the incidence in people not infected with the fungus but "colonized" had increased 21% in 2020 compared to 2019, and had shot up 209% in 2021. Cases increased from 1,310 in 2020 to 4,041 in 2021. .

This is an infection that occurs in extremely sick people, who usually suffer from other ailments."

dr.

waleed javaid epidemiologist

C. auris has been detected in more than half of the country's states, the study indicated.

What is most worrying is the increase in samples of the fungus that are resistant to the most common treatments.

Lyman hopes the study will put C. auris on healthcare providers' radar and encourage medical facilities to have "good infection control."

The study findings are "troubling," said Dr. Waleed Javaid, an epidemiologist, infectious disease expert and director of Infection Prevention and Control at Mount Sinai Downtown Hospital in New York.

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"But we don't want people [...] to think that we are all going to die," Javaid said.

"This is an infection that occurs in extremely sick people who usually suffer from other ailments."

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Even if C. auris spreads beyond medical centers into communities, it's unlikely to become a problem for healthy people who don't have medical equipment inserted into their bodies, Javaid stressed.

What needs to be prevented is the spread of the fungus to intensive care patients in hospitals

, Javaid said.

Unfortunately, C. auris can spread not only to people who come in contact with it, but also to patients' rooms.

"By its nature, it has an extreme ability to survive on surfaces," he explained.

"It can 'colonize' walls, cables, sheets, chairs. We have to clean everything with chlorine and an ultraviolet light."

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2023-03-21

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