Drug-Resistant Fungal ‘Superbug’ Has Health Officials Worried

• Concerns are being raised about a drug-resistant fungal “superbug” that has spread in healthcare facilities in Texas and Washington, D.C.
• Experts say the Candida auris fungus is highly contagious and can cause serious illness, especially in people already in a weakened condition.
• The strain first appeared in Japan in 2009 and has been in the United States since 2013.

As if the latest COVID-19 case surge isn’t enough to worry about, there’s a new fungal “superbug” making the rounds in some already overburdened medical facilities.

Hospitals and care facilities in some states are now seeing outbreaks of Candida auris fungus, a highly transmissible yeast that can cause invasive infections, including in the bloodstream.

In 2017, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) labeled this strain a “global emerging threat.”

In outbreaks in Texas and Washington D.C., the infection appears to be spread through person-to-person contact in healthcare facilities, which wasn’t typically the case in 2017, making the latest clusters even more dangerous.

The strain is also resistant to multiple antifungal drugs, making it difficult to treat, according to Oliver Schacht, PhD, the CEO of Maryland-based diagnostics and biotech company OpGen.

“Some strains are resistant to all three available classes of antifungals: polyenes, triazoles, and echinocandins,” Schacht told Healthline. “In fact, C. auris is now a global health threat as an emerging multidrug-resistant yeast that causes severe illness in hospitalized patients.”

The bug can be transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces or equipment as well as person-to-person contact, Schacht said.

“Patients who have a long stay in an intensive care unit, have serious medical conditions, and who have previously received antibiotics or antifungal medications tend to be at the highest risk of infection,” Schacht added.

CDC officials state that the strain “is difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods, and it can be misidentified in labs without specific technology. Misidentification may lead to inappropriate management.”