Candida Auris issued to be a deadly infection since June 2009. Yet, as time passed by, more and more citizens are becoming its victims. Now, the drug-resistant fungal infection had spread and already had affected almost three dozens of citizens in the U.S.
Chicago Tribune then reported that the first Candida Auris case was first found in a Japanese man with an ear infection. From then on out, five continents were already affected by the rare infection. The deadly fungal infection later on spread throughout Colombia, India, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, South Korea, Venezuela and the United Kingdom.
"As soon as we put out that alert, we started to get information about cases and now we know more about how it spreads and how it's acting," CDC's fungal expert, Tom Chiller said. As described, it enters the bloodstream and spread throughout the body causing invasive infections per CDC. The yeast candida Auris was described to not only affect the ear but also infects the bloodstream and wounds as well.
Another reason to be on alert is that the fungal infection is described to be not like any other yeast infection since it is immune to the three major antifungal drugs. Candida Auris was also identified to be difficult to identify without the proper laboratory methods. Hospital outbreaks were also reported to occur when somebody is infected so hospitals were advised to be on the lookout.
Candida Auris risk was identified to be rampant on recent surgery, diabetes, broad-spectrum antibiotic and antifungal use, and central venous catheter use patients. Aside from a patient’s underlying other diseases in their body, the deadly infection had been reported to have 60 percent of its affected people to have died already.
But now, the highest number of affected U.S. citizens are in New York with 28 cases already. Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey were also found to have similar cases as well. What’s more is that amid from the 35 cases in U.S., 18 patients were also found to carry the pathogen but aren’t sickened by it. Yet, amid people who were affected by the Candida Auris, some patients in the U.S. were treated due to existing drugs.
