WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A deadly fungus that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling an increasing threat to public health care spread at an "alarming rate" during the coronavirus pandemic and has been detected in Florida, the CDC said Monday.
The fungus, called Candida auris, preys primarily on "very sick" people and is generally not a threat to healthy people, the CDC said in a news release.
C. auris is resistant to most antifungal medications, spreads easily in health-care facilities and can cause severe infections with high death rates, the CDC said.
According to CDC data published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, C. auris was first detected in the U.S. in 2016 and has been spreading ever since, but its most rapid rise occurred at health-care facilities in 2020 and 2021.
"The rapid rise and geographic spread of cases is concerning and emphasizes the need for continued surveillance, expanded lab capacity, quicker diagnostic tests and adherence to proven infection prevention and control," Dr. Meghan Lyman, the CDC epidemiologist who was the lead author of the paper, said.
A CDC map indicates that there have been 349 clinical cases reported in Florida through 2022.
Clinical cases of C. auris have been detected in 28 states, plus Washington, D.C.
Only Nevada (384) and California (359) have more clinical cases than Florida.
| Location | Clinical Cases |
| Alabama | 6 |
| Arizona | 17 |
| California | 359 |
| Colorado | 1 |
| Delaware | 5 |
| District of Columbia | 19 |
| Florida | 349 |
| Georgia | 12 |
| Hawaii | 1 |
| Illinois | 276 |
| Indiana | 87 |
| Iowa | 0 |
| Kentucky | 22 |
| Louisiana | 10 |
| Maryland | 46 |
| Massachusetts | 2 |
| Michigan | 33 |
| Minnesota | 1 |
| Mississippi | 5 |
| Nevada | 384 |
| New Jersey | 94 |
| New Mexico | 1 |
| New York | 326 |
| Ohio | 79 |
| Pennsylvania | 33 |
| Tennessee | 8 |
| Texas | 160 |
| Virginia | 40 |
| Wisconsin | 1 |
* Clinical cases are based on cultures or culture-independent diagnostic testing from specimens collected during the course of clinical care for the purpose of diagnosing or treating disease.
Dr. Ramprasad Gopalan said challenges treating the fungus are what makes the species so dangerous.
"It is drug-resistant to the normally used agents, what we normally use, for fungal infections," the infectious disease doctor said.
Gopalan added that's why properly identifying and diagnosing the fungus is so important.
"In the hospitals, we have to use, really, regimens which are not normally used," he said.
Gopalan said a person can colonize the Candida auris and not be sick, yet still be able to transmit the fungus.
"As long as they're healthy, it's not as much concern to them because it doesn't affect them like influenza, COVID," Gopalan said. "You know, so it's relegated to immunocompromised, longterm acute care, health-care setting" individuals.
