The fungus, a type of yeast called Candida auris, or C. auris, is spreading at an alarming rate and can cause severe illness in people with weak immune systems.
A new CDC advisory, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, comes as the Mississippi Department of Health battles a growing fungal epidemic. At least 12 people have contracted C. auris since November, with four “potentially related deaths”; said state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers in an email.
Transmission continues at two long-term care facilities, although cases have been identified at several other facilities across the state.
“Unfortunately, multidrug-resistant organisms such as C. auris have become more prevalent among those most at risk, such as residents of long-term care facilities”; said Byers.
According to the CDC, the fungus is found on the skin and all over the body. It poses no danger to healthy people, but about a third of people who become infected with C. auris die.
In the CDC report, researchers analyzed data from state and local health officials on people with the fungus from 2016 through December 31, 2021, as well as people who were “colonized,” meaning they were not sick but had the disease from themselves wore bodies with the possibility of transmitting it to other people who may be more susceptible to it.
The number of infections increased by 59% from 2019 to 2020 to 756 and in 2021 by another 95% to 1,471 in 2020 compared to 2019 and by 209% in 2021, increasing to 4,041 in 2021 compared to 1,310 in the year 2020.
cAccording to a new study, auris has been detected in more than half of the US states.