Deadly Fungus Spreading Across US

(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is closely monitoring a new fungus called Candida auris (C. auris), which is causing serious worldwide health issues. This fungus has led to severe sickness and sometimes death in hospital patients. Twenty-nine states, including Florida, have reported cases of this infection.

Nevada leads the nation with the highest number of reported cases at 384, California follows with 359 cases, and Florida is third with 349 cases.

The CDC warns that C. auris can enter a person’s bloodstream and lead to severe infections, especially in individuals who’ve been in nursing homes recently and have medical devices like breathing tubes, feeding tubes, and catheters. The problem is that this type of yeast doesn’t react well to usual antifungal medicines, which makes treating it difficult.

Infections from any Candida species can be deadly. Available data indicates that over 30% of patients with C. auris infections have died. However, it’s essential to point out that many of these patients had other serious health problems, which increased their risk of death.

To combat this threat, the CDC urges healthcare facilities to stay alert and look out for any symptoms of C. auris infection.

Meghan Marie Lyman, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC, states that when Candida auris first started spreading, cases were connected to people who had traveled to the U.S. from abroad. However, the situation has changed, and most cases are now being contracted locally, mainly in healthcare settings among patients.

Last year, the U.S. saw 2,377 confirmed clinical cases, dramatically increasing over 1,200% since 2017. But this worrying trend isn’t just in the U.S.; Candida auris is a global issue. In Europe, a study last year showed that cases nearly doubled from 2020 to 2021.

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