The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a press release on Monday, March 20, sounding the alarm: Candida auris has been growing at an “alarming rate” for the past three years and can be considered an “urgent threat.”
It’s sowing panic in hospitals and raising concern across the Atlantic. Several reputable media outlets, such as Ouest-France, are reporting that a giant fungus is currently worrying authorities in the United States, where it is growing at “Big V” speed.
So much so that on Monday, March 20, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a press release sounding the alarm: Candida auris has been growing at an “alarming rate” for three years and can be considered “urgent.” “Nationwide, clinical cases rose from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021 […] The rapid increase and geographical spread of cases is worrying and underscores the need for continuous monitoring.
This fungus has the particularity of being extremely resistant to treatments. “In rare cases, some strains are even resistant to all antifungal drugs on the market,” adds the Huffington Post.
“High Mortality Rate”
When not posing a serious threat to healthy people, Candida auris can be deadly to already weakened patients. “Invasive infections are associated with a high mortality rate, largely due to the numerous comorbidities observed in infected or colonized patients,” states the High Council for Public Health.
The HCSP recalls that the fungus was discovered in Japan in 2009 and then “identified in several countries on the five continents, particularly in the United Kingdom, Spain, the United States and India, which have experienced epidemics. In France, only six cases were identified at the last assessment in July 2019.”