Deadly fungus Candida auris has spread across more than 27 states, with Nevada and New York leading as hot spots. Given that nursing homes are particularly prone to the drug-resistant fungal infection, experts are concerned about its continuing climb ever since the government’s report last month, and media outlets continue to shine a light on risks to nursing homes and other health care settings in their areas.
There were more than 8,000 cases of Candida auris – also called C. auris – in the United States in the 12 months ending in 2022. About 2,377 of these were “clinical cases,” while 5,754 were “screening cases,” according to recent data shared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Clinical cases include an invasive infection of the blood, heart or brain, while the screening cases are those where the fungus is detected on a patient’s skin, but not causing an infection.
By the end of 2022, Nevada was a major hotspot, leading C. auris infection rates with 364, or 16%, of the clinical cases of the superbug. It was closely followed by California with 359 cases, Florida with 349 cases and New York with 326, the CDC data shows. The first cases were detected in 2013.
Moreover, since 2021, more than 1,000 people in Nevada have been infected with the C. auris fungus with about 100 deaths related to the infection, according to the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory.
New York state had about a quarter of the 5,654 total clinical cases since 2013, with the C. auris infection found across all five boroughs of New York city.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, the CDC reported 79 clinical cases of C. auris in 2022, but recent data from the Ohio Department of Health shows a big jump to 416 cases through mid-March, as reported in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Last month, CDC said C. auris infections had seen an “alarming” rise. The public health agency said that screening is important to prevent spread by identifying patients carrying the fungus so that infection prevention controls can be successfully used.
“[Candida auris infections have] very high mortality and are very difficult to treat,” Dr. Swati Gaur, medical director at New Horizons Long-Term Care Facilities, told Skilled Nursing News.
Gaur said that the so-called screened cases can frequently turn into clinical cases with high mortality rates. “People who are colonized have a high risk of invasive infections,” she said, noting that as a result, a third of the patients infected with C. auris don’t survive..
Also, part of the efforts to curb C. auris spread have to do with the difficulty of treatment, she said.
“It’s really very, very resistant to typical treatments that we would give for fungal infections,” Gaur said, who is also affiliated with AMDA-Society of Post-Acute Long Term Care .
And while C. auris is difficult to treat, it also tends to infect critically ill people in hospitals and long-term care settings. It can be especially deadly for patients with organ transplants, immune-compromising disorders and diabetes. And, in the case of long-term care settings, use of ventilators and respiratory procedures such as tracheotomies with breathing tubes can really increase the risk of contracting C. auris, Gaur said.
And so, not letting people become infected in the first place by taking extra precautions in acute care settings with patients on ventilators, for example, is the key to stopping C. auris spread, according to Gaur.
Companies featured in this article:
AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Horizons Long Term Care Facilities