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Candida auris, resistant to antifungals, is an example of the increasingly growing public health threat of drug-resistant infections - worldwide including now in the U.S.



When a blood test showed a newly discovered but deadly infection in an elderly Brooklyn man hospitalized for surgery in Mount Sinai Hospital last May, he was immediately placed in isolation in the ICU, according to a New York Times report.

The germ that showed up in the blood test was a fungus called Candida auris, which has been attacking people around the world, mostly those with weak immune systems. C. auris is resistant to antifungal medications which renders it a major public health threat, similar to "superbugs" - bacterial infections which are resistant to antibiotics.

The Times reports that C. auris has struck in various countries around the globe in the past five years, including South Africa, Spain, England, Venezuela India, Pakistan as well as the United States.

In London, it closed down the ICU for 11 days in Royal Brompton Hospital, a prestigious lung and heart center. In Spain, 85 patients developed C. auris infections, of which 41% died within 30 days.

Recently, the fungus hit the United States, specifically New York, New Jersey and Illinois. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added it to the list of germs considered “urgent threats.” There have been 587 cases of people infected with C. auris in the US.

According to scientists, millions of people around the world could die of drug-resistant infections by 2050 if new medications aren't developed. Some scientists explain the rise of drug-resistant fungi in humans to the widespread use of fungicides on agricultural crops to keep them from rotting.

More: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/261500

Also at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/health/candida-auris-facts.html

Related: Candida auris is an emerging fungus that presents a serious global health threat. CDC is concerned about C. auris for three main reasons:

1. It is often multidrug-resistant, meaning that it is resistant to multiple antifungal drugs commonly used to treat Candida infections.

2. It is difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods, and it can be misidentified in labs without specific technology. Misidentification may lead to inappropriate management.

3. It has caused outbreaks in healthcare settings. For this reason, it is important to quickly identify C. auris in a hospitalized patient so that healthcare facilities can take special precautions to stop its spread.

https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/candida-auris/index.html

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