Health officials are closely monitoring emerging drug-resistant fungus Candida auris in nursing homes and other healthcare settings caring for medically vulnerable patients, following the identification of more than 3,400 clinical cases of the superbug through July 25.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System has tracked C. auris cases in at least 27 states so far this year, Newsweek reported. The agency has a map showing where outbreaks are most severe, with California reporting 873 infections this year and Texas reporting 433 cases.
The fungus is becoming established in more healthcare facilities, and expanding its geographic footprint, according to CDC data.
Health officials are sounding the alarm on C. auris because it resists multiple antifungal drugs and makes some infections difficult to treat. The fungus can survive on surfaces and medical equipment for extended periods – CDC continues to work with nursing homes to limit transmission, as well as public health agencies and hospitals.
C. auris is contracted through contaminated surfaces, medical equipment or infected and colonized patients, Newsweek reported. And the fungus can live on bed rails, medical devices and other surfaces if infection control measures aren’t followed.
Patients with ventilators, feeding tubes, catheters or other invasive medical devices are especially vulnerable since C. auris can get into the body through such devices. Nursing home patients with weakened immune systems of those requiring complex medical care are also at great risk to contract the fungus.
And nursing home staff and family members could carry the fungus with no symptoms, making outbreaks difficult to control.
The fungus causes a range of illnesses from skin and wound infections to invasive bloodstream infections which can become severe in medically vulnerable patients like a nursing home resident.
Documented cases have risen sharply in the U.S. over the past decade, with the CDC reporting 6,304 cases nationwide in 2024 and 4,290 in 2025; the virus was first detected in the country in 2013.
