 reported that Candida auris (C. auris) infections have increased dramatically in the US in recent years. The organisation described the fungus, which kills up to 60 per cent of people it infects, as an "urgent threat" in 2019. Since then it been spreading rapidly in healthcare settings, posing a significant risk to immunocompromised patients. According to CDC figures, there were 2,377 confirmed clinical cases of the bug in the US in 2021 - a marked increase of over 1,200 per cent since 2017. Meanwhile, the fungus has been spreading in other continents. With Europe seeing a doubling of cases from 335 in 2022, to 655 in 2021, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Between 2013 and 2021, 304 people in England were infected with the fungus, the Department of Health says. The majority of infections were the result of hospital outbreaks. It's resistance to the most common class of antifungal medicines mean it's a challenge for doctors to treat. Dr Luis Ostrosky, an infectious disease expert from McGovern Medical School, US, thinks C. auris is 'kind of our nightmare scenario.' 'It's a potentially multi-drug resistant pathogen with the ability to spread very efficiently in healthcare settings,' he said. "We've never had a pathogen like this in the fungal infection area," he added. Scientists believe that climate change could be a contributing factor to the sudden emergence and spread of C. auris. Arturo Casadevall, a microbiologist from Johns Hopkins University, US, said: 'We have tremendous protection against environment){kind=link}
A KILLER drug-resistant fungus is spreading at an alarming rate.
The ‘Last of Us’ bug, kills up to 60 per cent of those it infects and has now been recognised as a serious global health threat.
Scientists from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that Candida auris (C. auris) infections have increased dramatically in the US in recent years.
The organisation described the fungus, which kills up to 60 per cent of people it infects, as an “urgent threat” in 2019.
Since then it been spreading rapidly in healthcare settings, posing a significant risk to immunocompromised patients.