Emerging Fungal Infection Spreading At Alarming Rate: See CT Data

CONNECTICUT — A drug-resistant, potentially deadly fungus has been spreading at a troubling rate in U.S. health care facilities, including some in Connecticut, according to a new government study.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found the number of cases of the fungus Candida auris, or C. auris, “spread at an alarming rate” from 2020 to 2021. Equally troubling, the agency said in a news release Monday, is that the number of cases resistant to a commonly prescribed antifungal medicine more than tripled.

According to the CDC, C. auris is an "emerging fungus that presents a serious global health threat."

The fungus is found normally throughout the body and on the skin. It’s not a threat to healthy people, but for people with serious medical conditions that land them in the hospital or other health care facilities, infections can be deadly. C. auris kills about one-third of people who contract it.

In June 2017, the state Department of Public Health investigated a case of C. auris infection in a Connecticut acute care hospital. A "high level of awareness and rapid diagnosis contributed to the containment of spread," according to a statement from DPH, which added C. auris to the List of Reportable Laboratory Findings in January 2018. No additional C. auris infections have been found in Connecticut.

The DPH, Healthcare-Associated Infections & Antimicrobial Resistance Program collaborates closely with the Katherine A. Kelley State Public Health Laboratory, and the CDC Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network to provide Connecticut healthcare facilities with rapid and accurate identification of C. auris, and appropriate infection control, according to the DPH website.

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The CDC said poor general infection and control practices in health care facilities are a likely cause of the spread, though increased screening may also explain the increase. The agency said the timing of the increase is also likely tied to the strain put on health care facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The rapid rise and geographic spread of cases is concerning and emphasizes the need for continuing surveillance, expanded lab capacity, quicker diagnostic tests, and adherence to proven infection prevention and control,” CDC epidemiologist Dr. Meghan Lyman, the lead author of the paper, said in the news release.

The first U.S. case of C. auris was reported in 2016. Since then, 3,270 clinical cases in which an infection was present and 7,413 screening cases confirming the fungus but not an infection had been reported by Dec. 31, 2021.

Clinical cases have increased every year, but the most rapid rise was from 2020-2021, when 17 states identified their first-ever cases of C. auris, according to the CDC.

Nationwide, clinical cases rose from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021. Screening cases tripled from 2020 to 2021, for a total of 4,041. Screening is important to prevent spread by identifying patients carrying the fungus so that infection prevention controls can be used, according to the CDC.