A deadly fungus that kills up to one in three people it infects is rapidly spreading across the US – and has reached yet another state.
Candida auris — a type of yeast that is resistant to most antifungal medications — is now infecting Americans in 36 states, having just reached Washington, according to the latest announcement from local health officials.
Four patients being treated at a Seattle hospital have been infected with the fungus since January, they said.
The yeast is highly transmissible and spreads easily through touching contaminated surfaces among immunocompromised patients – with infections causing potentially fatal sepsis.
And it is resistant to medications commonly used to treat fungal infections.
The above is a stock photo of the Candida auris fungus, which is more common in hospitals and spreads through contact with contaminated equipment.
The number of cases of infection has risen dramatically since 2021, with cases increasing by 95 percent in two years.
Last year, 2,377 cases were discovered and the infection spread to six new states: New Mexico, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Wisconsin And Delaware.
Since 2016, there have been 5,654 cases in the US.
Experts have raised concerns about these increases, with Dr. Meghan Lyman, a chief physician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), saying they were “really concerning to us.”
She said NBC: ‘These increases have given us great concern, especially in recent years.
“We have seen increases not only in areas of ongoing transmission, but also in new areas.”
Health officials say C. auris – which is also found in swamps and wetlands – poses little risk to healthy people because their immune systems are strong enough to fight it.
But the fungus is dangerous in hospitals, where it can spread to patients with comorbidities or people taking immune-suppressing drugs, such as those used to treat cancer.
Patients initially experience fever, chills and night sweats, but the fungus can then spread to the bloodstream and cause sepsis – a fatal immune response to infection that causes very high levels of inflammation.
The fungus – which is detected through a blood test – can easily be missed in the early stages of an infection.
And it can be challenging to treat because it is resistant to common antifungal medications and, in some cases, stronger medications called echinocandins.
In Washington, health officials say they were alerted to the first case in a Seattle hospital patient on Jan. 10.
By the end of the month, a further three cases had been detected in hospital – with all three patients testing negative when first admitted.
Claire Brostrom-Smith, a state public health official, said: “Most healthy people don’t have to worry about C. auris infections.
‘The risk mainly applies to patients who stay in hospitals for long periods and require medical interventions, such as breathing tubes, feeding tubes or urinary catheters.
“Healthcare facilities that offer screening are taking an important proactive step to identify cases early to reduce the risk of spread to other patients.”
The cases are the first ever noted in Washington, and the state is also only the second to detect the disease in the Northwest — after Oregon discovered infections in 2021.
During 2022, the latest year available, six states first detected the fungus.
Concerns were also raised about an outbreak in Nevada, which was not tied to hospitals, indicating the disease was spreading beyond hospital settings.
The number of reported cases increased by 95 percent between 2020 and 2021 – more than double the 44 percent jump from the previous year.
In 2021, 1,471 cases were recorded.
In 2022, 2,377 cases of the fungus were diagnosed – an increase of 61 percent.
New York state has recorded the most cases so far, at 1,325, followed by Illinois with 1,044 and California with 813.
Among the patients infected with the fungus was Lorraine McCreary, 86, from Florida in 2019.
She died after a fatal stroke due to an infection with C. auris.
Lorrie, as she was known to friends and family, was hospitalized in June with pneumonia, not unusual for the later stage of her life.
But as she began to recover, her condition rapidly deteriorated and doctors performed a series of tests to find the cause.
She was eventually diagnosed with C. auris, which doctors believe may have caused her to contract a fungus in her oxygen tubes.