What is Candida auris?Potentially deadly fungus spreading in the US: everything you need to know

a Recent reports revealed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Fungus Candida auris is spreading rapidly through US health care facilities.

Also known as C. auris, reports of cases related to this drug-resistant bacterium doubled in 2021.

Additionally, the fungus may have been behind an outbreak in Mississippi that began in November, infecting at least 12 people and killing about four, according to figures provided by the state Department of Health to ABC News.

C. auris is not a threat to most healthy people and infections are rare, but it can affect vulnerable groups of people and can be resistant to several classes of drugs.

Here’s what you need to know about the fungus, why these rare cases occur, and how Americans can help prevent its spread.

What is Candida auris?

“C. auris is a type of Candida, and Candida is the most common yeast that causes infections in humans,” Dr. Shira Doron, Tuft Medicine’s chief infection control officer, told ABC News. “People are very familiar with the terms ‘yeast infection’ or ‘thrush’, which are caused by other species of Candida.”

according to CDCIt is a relatively new fungus that was first identified in Japan in 2009.

However, studies conducted since then have found that C. auris samples may be traced back to South Korea in 1996.

Public health experts refer to C. auris as an emerging pathogen. This means a newly emerging or discovered organism that has since spread rapidly either in the country where it is reported or in the country where it is currently reported.

Why is C. auris potentially dangerous?

Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director of the Division of Infection Prevention at Yale Medical School, told ABC News that C. auris can be transmitted from person to person, or spread by people who come into contact with contaminated surfaces.

“It’s a human-to-human transmission, and we don’t think there’s any other fungus that’s transmitted from person-to-person in any meaningful way,” he said. is really hard, standard lysol wipes, disinfecting wipes won’t kill it, you need specialized bleach wipes or additional products for candida ear.”

Another problem is the existence of strains of C. auris that are resistant to multiple antifungal drugs commonly used to treat Candida infections.

How is it diagnosed?

Patients with C. auris infection are usually diagnosed after analyzing cultures of blood or other body fluids.

However, experts say this can be difficult because analyzing these cultures requires updated machines or updated libraries, and not all labs have that capability. said.

Additionally, C. auris can be difficult to identify in culture results and can be confused with other species of Candida.

“The way the cultural results come back is, first of all, it’s like, ‘Okay, it’s like yeast,'” Doron said. “Then it’s like, ‘Okay, it looks like candida,’ but it could take a few days before it becomes candida ear, and you could be on the wrong medication. I have.

WHO IS AT RISK?

Experts say most healthy people don’t need to worry about C. auris infections.

However, people with weakened or weakened immune systems are at risk of infections that are difficult to treat.

Patients in nursing homes and hospitals who have or have had lines or tubes, such as catheters or breathing tubes, inside the body are also at increased risk.

How are C. auris infections treated?

Despite the multidrug resistance of some strains of C. auris infections, there is a class of antifungal drugs called echinocandins, available intravenously.

according to National Institutes of Healthh. Echinocandins inhibit key enzymes required to maintain the fungal cell wall.

In some cases, multiple high doses may be needed if the infection is resistant to all three major classes of drugs, says the CDC.

Are C. auris infections fatal?

Between 30% and 60% of people infected with C. auris die, according to the CDC, although studies are limited.

However, many of these patients also had other serious illnesses that increased their risk of death.

“Unless the skin is broken or a more serious systemic infection develops, the risk of mortality or serious complications is relatively low unless the fungus gets where it shouldn’t be.” There is a sore on the ear, which enters the bloodstream, and there is a candida ear bloodstream infection, which can be very fatal.

he continued. “Candida auris, it sticks to everything. It can stick to heart valves and catheters. But I want to stress that it’s a rare occurrence.”

What can be done to prevent spread?

Although there is little that individuals can do to prevent the spread of the fungus, experts recommend avoiding patients with C. auris infection and practicing good hand hygiene when visiting at-risk populations such as hospital patients and nursing homes. We encourage residents to practice

Delon said people also need to be careful about overuse of antibiotics. They can help treat some infections, but these drugs kill bacteria in the gut and cause C. auris. It can give room for yeast such as

Roberts said there needs to be a continued focus on equipping more laboratories so that C. auris can be easily identified, and a public health infrastructure that can identify, isolate and group infected patients. said we need to focus on

“There are many examples of this, but you know, in nursing homes where patients have candida ears,” he said. “For example, they passed it on to their roommates. From a perspective, it is very important to have a mechanism to test everyone else in the nursing home to see who is infected, put them in an isolated area such as one hallway, and put those who are not in the other. are not colonized in the corridors of

Roberts continued, “If that patient needs to be hospitalized, let the hospital know that this patient should be quarantined for Candida auris. I will not go to the patient of

Aerial Petty of ABC News contributed to this report.