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Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...read-rcna75477
Deadly fungal infection spreading at an alarming rate, CDC says
The fungus, a type of yeast called Candida auris, or C. auris, can cause severe illness in people with weakened immune systems.
March 20, 2023, 6:07 PM EDT / Updated March 21, 2023, 10:48 AM EDT
By Linda Carroll
A drug-resistant and potentially deadly fungus has been spreading rapidly through U.S. health care facilities, a new government study finds.
The fungus, a type of yeast called Candida auris, or C. auris, can cause severe illness in people with weakened immune systems. The number of people diagnosed with infections — as well as the number of those who were found through screening to be carrying C. auris — has been rising at an alarming rate since it was first reported in the U.S., researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday.
The increases, “especially in the most recent years, are really concerning to us,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Meghan Lyman, chief medical officer in the CDC’s Mycotic Diseases Branch, said in an interview. “We’ve seen increases not just in areas of ongoing transmission, but also in new areas.”
The CDC's new warning, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, comes as the Mississippi Department of Health is fighting a growing outbreak of the fungus. Since November, at least 12 people have been infected with C. auris with four "potentially associated deaths," the state's epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers, said in an email....
Deadly fungal infection spreading at an alarming rate, CDC says
The fungus, a type of yeast called Candida auris, or C. auris, can cause severe illness in people with weakened immune systems.
March 20, 2023, 6:07 PM EDT / Updated March 21, 2023, 10:48 AM EDT
By Linda Carroll
A drug-resistant and potentially deadly fungus has been spreading rapidly through U.S. health care facilities, a new government study finds.
The fungus, a type of yeast called Candida auris, or C. auris, can cause severe illness in people with weakened immune systems. The number of people diagnosed with infections — as well as the number of those who were found through screening to be carrying C. auris — has been rising at an alarming rate since it was first reported in the U.S., researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday.
The increases, “especially in the most recent years, are really concerning to us,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Meghan Lyman, chief medical officer in the CDC’s Mycotic Diseases Branch, said in an interview. “We’ve seen increases not just in areas of ongoing transmission, but also in new areas.”
The CDC's new warning, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, comes as the Mississippi Department of Health is fighting a growing outbreak of the fungus. Since November, at least 12 people have been infected with C. auris with four "potentially associated deaths," the state's epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers, said in an email....