A deadly fungus that is considered an urgent public health threat by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spread at an “alarming rate” during the pandemic, the CDC said on Monday.
The director of the National Reference Centre for Invasive Fungus Infections, Oliver Kurzai, holding in his hands a petri dish holding the yeast Candida auris in a laboratory of Wuerzburg University in Wuerzburg, Germany, Jan. 23, 2018.
The surge represents a “dramatic increase” in caseload and transmission of C. auris, according to a research paper published Monday in the Annals of Medicine and compiled by researchers at the CDC. The fungus is now in half the 50 states, many with just a handful of cases, but with higher concentrations in California, Nevada, Texas and Florida.The new paper did not include caseloads from 2022.
It is likely that the coronavirus pandemic worsened the spread of C. auris, CDC officials said. With attention focused on COVID-19, less emphasis was put on screening for C. auris. Also, the fungus tends to cling to nursing gowns, gloves and other personal protective gear that, under ideal conditions, would be changed frequently but that were reused during the pandemic because of supply shortages. C.
C. auris is not a particular threat to young healthy people, whose immune systems can fight it off, but can be transported on skin and clothing. Those who contract it can experience typical infection symptoms, like fever and chills that can intensify absent treatment. The fungus commonly strikes older patients, particularly those who have many visits or prolonged visits to health care facilities, where it can be hard to clean or eradicate.
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