Deadly drug-resistant fungus sparks outbreaks in UK—and it’s stalking US | Ars Technica
▻https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/08/deadly-drug-resistant-fungus-sparks-outbreaks-in-uk-and-its-stalking-us
More than 200 patients in more than 55 UK hospitals were discovered by healthcare workers to be infected or colonized by the multi-drug resistant fungus #candida_auris, a globally emerging yeast pathogen that has experts nervous.
Three of the hospitals experienced large outbreaks, which as of Monday were all declared officially over by health authorities there. No deaths have been reported since the fungus was first detected in the country in 2013, but 27 affected patients have developed blood infections, which can be life-threatening. And about a quarter of the more than 200 cases were clinical infections.
Officials in the UK aimed to assuage fear of the fungus and assure patients that hospitals were safe. “Our enhanced surveillance shows a low risk to patients in healthcare settings. Most cases detected have not shown symptoms or developed an infection as a result of the fungus,” Dr Colin Brown, of Public Health England’s national infection service, told the BBC.
Yet, public health experts are uneasy about the rapid emergence and level of drug resistance the pathogen is showing. In a surveillance update in July, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that C. auris “presents a serious global health threat.”
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