US CDC says Candida auris cases nearly doubled between 2020 and 2021

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the spread of potentially deadly fungal infections with Candida auris is increasing in US healthcare facilities, with cases nearly doubling between 2020 and 2021.

The number of cases went up by 44% to 476 in 2019, up from 330 in 2018 and by 59% to 756 in 2020 and by an additional 95% to 1,471 in 2021, the agency s researchers reported on Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine.

In 2021, a tripling of the number of cases that were resistant to echinocandins was also concerning, as it was the class of drugs most often recommended for treatment of the disease.

The most common symptoms of Candida auris include a high fever and chills that do not improve after antibiotic treatment for suspected bacterial infections, according to guidelines from the CDC. Additional symptoms can develop if the infection spreads.

In the hit HBO series, The Last of Us, a new epidemiologist and director of infection prevention and control, Waleed Javaid, told NBC News that the findings were worrisome but don't mean that the world is about to experience an apocalypse like the one caused by an outbreak of cordyceps fungal infections.

Javaid said we didn't want people who watched the TV show to think we're all going to die.

People who are very sick, have invasive medical devices such as mechanical ventilators, or have long or frequent hospital stays are at particular risk for the infections, the report said.

The rapid rise and geographic spread of cases is concerning and emphasizes the need for continued surveillance, expanded lab capacity, faster diagnostic tests and adherence to proven infection prevention and control, the study s leader, Meghan Lyman, said in a statement.

The spread of infections in 2021 may have been exacerbated as the healthcare system was hit by stresses related to the Covid 19 pandemic, including staff and equipment shortages, according to the CDC.

The report didn't include data from 2022, but the CDC's website shows 2,377 confirmed Candida auris infections in the US. There were 53 cases reported in the country last year, a rise from last year's 53 in 2016.

Candida auris has been detected in more than half of the US states, with recent cases mostly reflecting local transmission of the disease, according to the report.

The researchers said that other countries have reported an increase in the spread of the fungus.