Health authority says deadly fungus traveled to US

By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – A deadly fungus linked to four deaths has invaded hospitals in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday.

The drug-resistant fungus, known as Candida auris, preys on victims who are already severely weakened by disease. Many victims have an immune system wrecked by cancer, for example. Since the four patients who died who were infected with the fungus were already extremely ill, the CDC cannot conclusively claim C. auris was responsible for their deaths.

The agency said, however, the fungus was was found in 13 cases in the U.S. C. auris was first identified in Japan in 2009, and the CDC has tracked its spread through South America, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and now the U.S.

Details were provided on seven of the 13 total cases reported by the CDC, the first of which occurred in May 2013. The patients in the seven cases came from the states of New York, Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey.

All of the patients suffered from serious health problems and had been in a hospital for at least 18 consecutive days before the fungus was diagnosed.

“We need to act now to better understand, contain and stop the spread of this drug-resistant fungus,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a statement. “This is an emerging threat, and we need to protect vulnerable patients and others.”

Samples of C. auris collected from across the globe show it is resistant to all three of the major classes of antifungal medication. A genetic analysis of the U.S. patients show the fungus was related to strains found in South America and South Asia, although none of the patients had travelled to those regions nor had any direct links to them.

“It appears that C. auris arrived in the United States only in the past few years,” the chief of the CDC’s fungus-focused Mycotic Diseases Branch, Tom Chiller, said in a statement. “We’re working hard with partners to better understand this fungus and how it spreads so we can improve infection control recommendations and help protect people.”

Details of the disease's worldwide spread are not yet fully understood. The CDC said C. auris kills about 60 percent of infected patients worldwide, and some countries have reported outbreaks consisting of more than 30 people.