Hospitals in New York State are witnessing a deadly drug resistant fungal infection outbreak
by: Daniel Barker
NaturalNews.com
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
More than 30 cases of infection from a deadly fungal superbug have now been confirmed in the United States, with 28 of the 35 reported cases occurring in hospitals located in New York State.
Last year, health officials warned that cases of the highly drug-resistant fungus, Candida auris, might soon appear in the United States. Now that the superbug has arrived, the major concern is how to keep it from spreading, since in some cases there may be no method for treating it.
Some strains of Candida auris are resistant to all the antifungal drugs available and an infection by the superbug is indeed a life-threatening proposition.
From The Washington Post:
“Unlike garden variety yeast infections, this one causes serious bloodstream infections, spreads easily from person to person in healthcare settings, and survives for months on skin and for weeks on bed rails, chairs and other hospital equipment. Some strains are resistant to all three major classes of antifungal drugs. Based on information from a limited number of patients, up to 60 percent of people with these infections have died.”
It’s not easy to determine just how deadly the effects of the superbug are, since most of the infections have occurred among patients who already had serious illnesses.
Candida auris infections were first seen in 2009, and since then cases have been reported in one dozen countries. On at least two occasions, individual hospital outbreaks have involved more than 30 patients.
So far, none of the C. auris infections in the United States have proven to be drug-resistant, which gives health officials hope that the spread of the fungus can be contained.
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