Candida Auris Confirmed to be Spreading in 2 US Cities
The clusters were identified in Washington, DC, and the Dallas area.
On Thursday, US health officials have confirmed they have evidence that the untreatable superbug fungus, candida auris, has been spreading in 2 hospitals and 1 nursing home.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). the outbreaks have been reported at a nursing home in Washington, DC, and at 2 hospitals in the Dallas area.
Some of the patients were reported to have invasive fungal infections, which did not show any improvement after being treated with all 3 major classes of medication.
Candida auris is a form of yeast that poses a significant threat to hospital and nursing homes patients who have serious medical issues. The fungus causes the most severe problems when it enters the bloodstream, heart or brain.
Outbreaks have typically begun when the fungus was spread by patient contact or contaminated surfaces.
Unlike in previous cases where spread from patient contact was not detected, for example in 2019 when 3 cases were diagnosed in New York, these cases have been observed to be spreading.
A cluster of 101 cases was detected in the Washington, DC, nursing home and a cluster of 22 cases was detected in the 2 Dallas areas hospitals.
The clusters were detected from January to April and of the 5 people who were fully resistant to treatment, 3 eventually died.
Investigators have reviewed previous medical records and they did not find any evidence of past antifungal use among the patients, which indicates that they spread from person to person.
