A fungus that is usually immune to drugs has spread at an “alarming rate” through health-care facilities within the U.S., in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Candida auris is an emerging fungus that’s serious and potentially fatal for hospitalized patients, particularly those with multiple medical problems.
The fungus was first identified in Asia in 2009, and the initial U.S. case dates back to 2013. Candida auris was limited to Recent York City and Chicago, but has since been detected in greater than half of U.S. states and has change into endemic in some areas, in line with a CDC report published within the Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday.
From 2019 to 2021, 17 states detected their first-ever cases of the fungus. California, the mid-Atlantic region, the Midwest, Texas and Florida had growing transmission during that point, in line with the CDC.
Infections have increased by about 200% from about 500 infections in 2019 to greater than 1,400 in 2021. The fungus has spread most in long-term care hospitals for individuals who have serious medical conditions and want ongoing treatment, in line with the CDC.
Symptoms can vary greatly depending on the form of infection, but fever and chills are essentially the most common. Individuals with weak immune systems, who’ve diabetes, who take quite a lot of antibiotics or who’re are on respiration tubes, feeding tubes and catheters usually tend to be affected.
A 2021 CDC report found that mortality in two outbreaks of the fungus that was immune to echinocandins was 30% over 30 days. The cases studied within the outbreaks were primarily severely ailing patients at long-term care facilities, so the precise contribution of Candida auris to the deaths was unclear. The outbreaks took place in Washington, D.C., and Texas.
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Candida auris is usually immune to medication used to treat fungal infections. In 2020, 86% of samples were immune to a category of antifungal drugs called azoles and 26% were immune to amphotericin B, in line with the CDC.
Just over 1% of samples tested in 2020 were strains immune to the principal drug class used to treat such infections, called echinocandins, up from 0.4% in 2018. The CDC said that although resistance to echinocandins continues to be unusual, the variety of such cases tripled in 2021 in comparison with the previous two years.
“Even this subtle increase is concerning because echinocandins are the first-line therapy for invasive Candida infections and most Cauris infections,” the CDC said in its report.
The CDC attributed the rapid spread of the fungus to a decline in infection control through the pandemic attributable to strain on the health-care system, from staff and equipment shortages to a surge in patient burden and increased antimicrobial use.
“The rapid rise and geographic spread of cases is concerning and emphasizes the necessity for continued surveillance, expanded lab capability, quicker diagnostic tests and adherence to proven infection prevention and control,” said CDC epidemiologist Dr. Meghan Lyman, the lead creator on the report.