Hospitals around the world attacked drug-resistant killer fungus

Candida auris, a deadly fungus, is spreading rapidly throughout hospitals around the world. It is especially dangerous for people with reduced immunity, is difficult to diagnose and is not treatable.

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Doctors around the world are sounding the alarm: a deadly fungus is spreading in hospitals, which no medicine can destroy, they write “Israeli news«.

It all started in May 2018, when an elderly patient was hospitalized at Mount Sinai hospital in Brooklyn. He underwent abdominal surgery. A blood test showed infection with the fungus Candida auris, which has recently become extremely dangerous. After 90 days, the patient died, and traces of the fungus were found on all surfaces of the chamber.

According to hospital President Scott Laurin, the fungus was found on the walls, bed, doors, curtains, telephones, in the sink and even on the mattress and bed frame, as well as on window handles and on the ceiling.

From that moment on, the fungus began to spread imperceptibly throughout the world.

Candida auris attacks patients with reduced immunity. In 2009, it was discovered in Japan, and in 1996 - in South Korea. In the last 5 years, outbreaks of candidiasis have been reported in the department for premature babies in Venezuela, in 5 Spanish hospitals. Because the fungus had to close the intensive care unit in a British hospital. The fungus was also found in Pakistan, India and South Africa.

According to a publication in the New York Times, the fungus has recently reached New York, New Jersey and Illinois, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has included it in the list of dangerous and aggressive microorganisms.

A patient from Brooklyn died in the hospital after 90 days, but Candida auris did not disappear. The analysis showed his presence in all corners of the deceased's chamber, and it was necessary to use special means of cleaning, as well as dismantle some of the ceilings and a portion of the tiled floor to get rid of the fungus.

The fungus is resistant to all existing drugs.

Candida auris is considered to be a particularly problematic fungus, since it is stable in all existing antifungal drugs.

Microorganisms of this kind are called supermicrobials, but in most cases they do not attack everyone, but mostly people with immature or weakened immune systems, including toddlers and the elderly, smokers, diabetics and autoimmune patients who take steroids that suppress the immune response.

Scientists argue that if new effective drugs are not developed, resistant infections will become a threat to humanity. For decades, experts have warned that over-consumption of antibiotics, which prolonged life expectancy and saved many lives, reduces their effectiveness.

Recently, not only resistant bacteria have been identified, but also resistant fungi, which further aggravates the situation. According to prof. Matthew Fisher, a specialist in epidemiology of fungal infections from Imperial College in London, is a serious problem, and the result of combating a new scourge depends on the effectiveness of antifungal drugs.

Fungi, like bacteria, produce resistance to modern drugs. Candida auris, which killed a patient in Brooklyn, is one of dozens of microorganisms that have developed such resistance, but at the same time, like many microbes, it is not known to the general public.

Dr. Lynn Sousa, an epidemiologist from Connecticut, said she considers Candida auris to be the most serious threat among drug-resistant infections. This fungus is untreatable and difficult to diagnose, and most of the infected patients are doomed to die within 90 days.

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