What is Candida auris? Potentially Deadly Fungus Spreading in the United States: Everything You Need to Know

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed Candida auris fungus is spreading rapidly in US healthcare facilities.

Also known as C. auris, case reports linked to the drug-resistant fungus doubled in 2021.

Additionally, the fungus is behind an outbreak in Mississippi that began in November, infecting at least 12 people and potentially responsible for about four deaths, according to figures provided by the US Department of Health. State at ABC News.

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

Here’s what to know about the fungus, why these rare cases are happening, and how Americans can help prevent the spread.

What is Candida auris?

“C. auris is a species of Candida, and Candida is the most common yeast that causes human infections,” Dr. Shira Doron, infection control manager at Tuft Medicine, told ABC News. “People are familiar with the term ‘yeast infections’ or ‘thrush’; these are caused by other species of Candida.”

According to CDCit is a relatively new type of fungus, first identified in Japan in 2009.

However, studies since then have found samples of C. auris can be traced back to South Korea in 1996.

Public health experts refer to C. auris as an emerging pathogen, which means an organism that has just appeared or been discovered but has since spread rapidly, either in terms of cases or in countries where it is now reported.

Why is C. auris potentially dangerous?

Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director of infection prevention at Yale School of Medicine, told ABC News that C. auris can spread either through person-to-person transmission or from people coming into contact with surfaces. contaminated.

“It spreads person-to-person and we don’t really think any other fungus spreads person-to-person in any meaningful way,” he said. “And it’s really hard to kill. Standard Lysol wipes, disinfectant wipes don’t kill it. We need dedicated bleach wipes or additional products suitable for Candida auris.”

The other issue is that there are strains of C. auris that are drug resistant, which means yeast infections will not respond to multiple antifungal drugs commonly used to treat Candida infections.

How is it diagnosed?

Patients with C. auris infections are usually diagnosed after analysis of cultures of blood or other bodily fluids.

However, experts said it can be difficult because analyzing these cultures requires up-to-date machines or updated libraries, which not all labs have the capacity for.

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

“The way the culture results come back first is like, ‘Okay, that looks like yeast,'” Doron said. “Then it’s like, ‘Okay, it looks like Candida’ only it could be days before it’s Candida auris and you might be using the wrong drugs.”

Who is at risk?

Most healthy people don’t need to worry about C. auris infections, experts said.

However, people with weakened immune systems or who are immunocompromised are at risk for hard-to-treat infections.

Additionally, nursing home patients or hospitalized patients who have or have had lines and tubes in their body — such as a catheter or breathing tube — are also at high risk.

How are C. auris infections treated?

Although several strains of C. auris infections are multidrug resistant, there is a class of antifungal drugs called echinocandins that can be used and given intravenously.

According to National Institutes of Healthh, echinocandins inhibit a key enzyme needed to maintain the cell wall of the fungus.

In some cases, when the infection is resistant to all three major drug classes, multiple high doses may be needed, the CDC said.

Are C. auris infections fatal?

According to the CDC, studies are limited, but between 30% and 60% of people with C. auris infections have died.

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

“Unless there is a break in the skin or some sort of deeper systemic infection, the risk of death, or a deeper complication, is relatively low unless this fungus gets into a place where it shouldn’t be,” Robert said. “For example, there’s a tear in the skin, it gets into the bloodstream, and there’s a Candida auris bloodstream infection, and that can be pretty deadly.”

He continued. “Candida auris sticks to everything. It can stick to heart valves and stick to catheters. I want to point out that this is a rare occurrence, though.”

What can we do to prevent the spread?

There isn’t much that can be done on an individual level to prevent the spread of the fungus, but experts recommend avoiding patients with C. auris infections and that people practice good hand hygiene when they visit at-risk populations such as hospitalized patients or nursing homes. residents.

Doron said people also need to be careful about the overuse of antibiotics. Although they can be helpful in treating some infections, these drugs can kill bacteria in the gut and give yeast like C. auris more room to grow.

Roberts said the focus needs to continue on equipping more labs to easily identify C. auris and focus on public health infrastructure that can identify, isolate and regroup infected patients.

“There are many examples of this, but, you know, in a nursing home, a patient has Candida auris,” he said. “They passed it on to their roommate, for example. It’s really critical from that perspective to have a mechanism to test everyone in the nursing home to see who’s infected, put them in an isolated area, like a hallway, and put those who aren’t. ‘t colonized in the other corridor.”

Roberts continued: “And if this patient needs to be admitted to the hospital, we advise the hospital that this patient needs to be isolated from Candida auris. Do not reuse blood pressure cuffs on this patient and move on to the next patient, for example . “

ABC News’ Aerial Petty contributed to this report.