Public Health Departments Across Us Worried About Deadly Fungus Spread

By john Last updated Mar 25, 2023

After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a spike in cases, public health departments around the country raised concerns about the spread of a potentially fatal fungus. According to the CDC, the number of cases of Candida auris, or C. auris, will double in 2021. Health officials are now attempting to stop the spread of the drug-resistant yeast after infections were recorded across the nation.

Recently, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment received reports of two incidents. The patients had been receiving care in out-of-state hospitals before being brought to Colorado for extra therapy, the organization informed the neighborhood ABC affiliate Denver 7.

C. auris is frequently multi-drug resistant, can be challenging to identify, and can lead to epidemics in healthcare settings, according to the website of the CPDPHE. Also, according to local affiliate WRTV, the Indiana State Department of Health says it is keeping an eye on 87 instances of C. auris.

The agency stated on its website that the fungus “presents a severe global health concern.” Early case detection and communication are crucial for raising awareness and preventing outbreaks of this pathogen in hospital settings. Moreover, Austin Public Health recently told KXAN that the outbreak is a “high threat” to the organization and that it is “extremely alarming.”

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While the majority of healthy people are not in danger, vulnerable populations, such as those with weaker immune systems, are more likely to contract infections that are resistant to treatment. Patients at nursing homes or hospitals who now have or have had lines and tubes in their bodies, such as a breathing tube or a catheter, are also at high risk.

Because C. auris can spread from person to person or by coming into contact with contaminated surfaces, doctors have already told ABC News that they are worried. Echinocandins are a type of antifungal medication that can be employed and administered intravenously, even though some strains of C. auris are multi-drug resistant.

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The National Institutes of Health claim that echinocandins block a crucial enzyme required for the fungus’s cell wall maintenance. Several high doses might be necessary for some situations when the infection is resistant to all three of the primary types of medications, according to the CDC.

The CDC states that although there has been little research on C. auris-related mortality, between 30% and 60% of patients with C. auris infections have passed away. However, many of these patients also had other severe conditions, which raised their risk of dying, according to federal health officials.

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