An
emerging fungal threat spread at an alarming rate in US health care facilities, study says. Clinical cases of Candida auris, an emerging fungus considered an urgent threat, nearly doubled in 2021, according to new data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There was also a tripling of the number of cases resistant to echinocandins, the first-line treatment for Candida auris infections.
The research, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, evaluated cases of Candida auris reported to the CDC from 2016 – the year in which cases were first reported in the US – to 2021.
The study authors found that clinical cases increased each year, rising from 53 in 2016 to 330 in 2018 and then skyrocketing from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021.
Cases of Candida auris also expanded geographically. Although it was initially confined mostly to the New York City and Chicago areas, Candida auris is now present in more than half of US states. Between 2019 and 2021, 17 states identified their first cases.
The CDC has called Candida auris an “urgent threat” because it is often multidrug-resistant, easily spreads through health care facilities and can cause deadly disease. It is also resistant to some common disinfectants and can be carried on people's skin without causing symptoms, facilitating its spread to others.
The researchers wrote that the timing of this increased spread suggests that it may have been exacerbated by “pandemic-related strain on the health care and public health system.”
“The rapid rise and geographic spread of cases is concerning and emphasizes the need for continued surveillance, expanded lab capacity, quicker diagnostic tests, and adherence to proven infection prevention and control,” CDC epidemiologist Dr. Meghan Lyman, lead author of the study, said in a news release.
