The United States Health Officials said on Thursday; they now have evidence of an untreatable fungus spread in a nursing home and two hospitals.
According to ABC 7, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specified that superbug outbreaks were specifically reported at a nursing home in Washington DC and two hospitals located in Dallas.
A few of the patients had intrusive fungal infections resistant to all three major types of medications. The CDC's Dr. Meghan Lyman said this is really the first time the agency has started to see clustering of resistance in which patients appeared to be getting the infections from each other.
The fungus, identified as Candida Auris, is a dangerous form of yeast that is considered hazardous to both nursing home and hospital patients with severe medical problems.
Deadly Fungus
The said fungus is most fatal when it's entering the bloodstream, brain, or heart. Outbreaks in health care facilities have been stimulated when the fungus spread through contaminated surfaces or patient contact.
In the fight against such an outbreak, health officials have sounded alarms for years about the superbug after they saw infections in which generally used drugs had a small impact.
In 2019, doctors were able to diagnose three cases in New York that were resistant to a class of medications, known as echinocandins, considered a last line of defense.
In the said circumstances, there was no evidence of infection seen spreading from patient to patient. As a result, scientists concluded the resistance to the medications formed during treatment. Indeed, the new cases spread concluded the CDC.
Fungus Spread From Person to Person
A cluster of 101 C. Auris cases at a nursing home in Washington DC dedicated to very ill patients included three resistant to all three types of antifungal drugs.
Additionally, a cluster of 22 in two hospitals in Dallas included two with a similar resistance level. The said facilities were unidentified.
Those cases were observed from January to April. Out of the five individuals who were totally resistant to treatment, three died. Both of these Texas were Texas patients, and one in Washington.
According to Lyman, both are ongoing outbreaks, and those additional contagions have been identified since April. Both of the added numbers were not reported.
Investigators examined medical records and did not find any evidence of previous antifungal use among patients in such clusters. Meaning, health officials said, the fungus spread is from person to person.
COVID-19 Possibly Accelerating Fungus Spread
The New York Times reported, according to infectious disease specialists, the COVID-19 pandemic has possibly accelerated fungus spread. The scarcities of personal protective equipment or PPE that hobbled health care workers during the onset of this global health crisis, they say, reportedly increased opportunities for the transmission of fungus among the thousands of patients with COVID-19 who ended up on intrusive mechanical ventilation.
Furthermore, the chaos of recent months had not been helpful. Infection control initiatives explained by Dr. Clancy, at most health care systems "are stretched thin in the best of times," although with so many COVID-19 patients, resources that might have gone to the regulation of infection were diverted elsewhere.
A related report is shown on Stream News's YouTube video below:
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