By GREGG MONTGOMERY
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sounded an alarm on an emerging, drug-resistant fungus found in health care facilities, including ones in Indiana.
News 8 asked WISH-TV medical expert and former U.S. surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams to share more information about the fungus named Candida auris.
“The CDC is calling Candida auris an urgent threat after a new study showed it’s been spreading at an alarming rate throughout U.S. health care facilities,” Adams said. “The first-ever case in the U.S. was detected in 2015 and, unfortunately, we’ve seen a 300 percent increase in infections in the last two years, with Indiana reporting 87 cases last year.”
The fungus can invade the blood, heart, and brain. Adams says more than one in three patients have died from the infection.
“This new fungus, as you mentioned, is not only resistant to many antifungal medications,” Adams said, “but it’s difficult to identify without specialized laboratory equipment, and, so, it’s often mistaken for other infections.”