According to a government study, a drug-resistant and potentially fatal fungus is rapidly spreading through US hospitals.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reported that a yeast type called Candida auris and C. auris can cause severe illness in those with a weak immune system.
Since the first report of C. auris in the US in 2016, the number of people who have been diagnosed and those who were tested for it has increased alarmingly.
Although the fungus was first identified in Asia in 2009, scientists believe that C. auris appeared in the rest of the world around a decade before then.
Chief medical officer at the CDC’s branch for mycotic diseases, Dr Meghan Lyman, stated that the rises, especially in the last few years, were “really concerning to us”.
She said, “We have seen increases in areas of ongoing transmission as well as in new areas.”
Dr Lyman expressed concern about the rising number of resistant fungus samples to common treatments.
Dr Waleed Javaid is an epidemiologist at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York. He said that the fungus was “worrisome”.
Dr Javaid stated that “But, we don’t want people watching ‘The Last Of Us” to believe we’re all going mad,”
“This infection is common in very ill people who have many other health problems.”
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Healthy people are not at risk from the fungus that can be found on their skin or elsewhere.
About one-third of those who are afflicted by C. auris eventually die.
More than half of all US states have been affected by the fungus. Between 2020 and 2021, the number of infections in the US grew by 95%.
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This research comes at a time when Mississippi is experiencing a rising outbreak of the fungus.
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According to the state’s health division, 12 people have been infected since November with four “potentially related deaths”.
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