Michigan health officials documented the first case of a rare and potentially serious fungus in the state in an older adult, a Fox News spokesperson confirmed – but what is Candida auris?
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ Bureau of Laboratories confirmed an MDHHS health alert on 27th, shared with Fox News.
“There was no threat to the public and the patient’s health care providers were aware of this and were taking the correct precautions. No other cases have been identified at this point, ”MDHHS spokeswoman Lynn Sutfin wrote in an email to Fox News on Friday.
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The Candida auris fungus is a noxious form of yeast that is considered dangerous for hospital and nursing home patients with serious medical problems. It is deadliest when it enters the bloodstream, heart, or brain. Healthcare outbreaks have been promoted when the fungus spread through patient contact or on contaminated surfaces.
The fungus is often resistant to multiple drugs and difficult to identify, according to the MDHHS health warning issued to local health officials, laboratories, epidemiologists and health care partners after the fall. According to state health authorities, 90% of the samples are resistant to fluconazole, 30% resistant to polyene and 5% resistant to echinocandins.
“Patients exposed to C. auris can remain colonized for long periods of time, putting them at risk for future C. auris infection and spreading the yeast,” the warning said.
Laboratories in Michigan were instructed to immediately submit suspicious or confirmed samples to the MDHHS Bureau of Laboratories and to report any suspicious or confirmed cases within one day of diagnosis.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Candida auris is an emerging fungus that poses a serious global health threat,” and states that states like California, Florida, New York and Illinois each report over 100 probable and confirmed cases have from May 2020 to April 2021.
The “superbug” outbreaks were also recently reported in a Washington, DC nursing home, with a group of 101 C. auris cases and a group of 22 in two hospitals in the Dallas area, the CDC reported. A handful of the patients had invasive fungal infections that were insensitive to any of the three main classes of drugs.
“This is really the first time we’ve seen a build-up of resistance,” where patients seem to get infections from each other, said Dr. Meghan Lyman of the CDC following the Dallas and Washington DC outbreaks. Lyman noted that both of the outbreaks are ongoing and that additional infections have been identified since April. But these additional numbers were not reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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