The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday warned that a deadly fungus called Candida auris (C. auris) is spreading at an "alarming rate" in the U.S. healthcare facilities.
“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,” said CDC epidemiologist Dr. Meghan Lyman, lead author of the paper, in a press release.
Adding to the agency's concerns, the number of infections that were resistant to echinocandins, which is the antifungal medicine most commonly used to treat C. auris infections, tripled in 2021.
The CDC classified C. auris as an "urgent antimicrobial resistance (AR) threat," meaning "it is often resistant to multiple antifungal drugs, spreads easily in healthcare facilities, and can cause severe infections with high death rates."
Between 2016, when C. auris was first reported, and 2021, there have been a total of 3,270 clinical cases reported and 7,413 screening cases.
The agency said "poor general infection prevention and control (IPC) practices in healthcare facilities" are responsible for the spread. However, expanded efforts to detect cases is also responsible for the jump in reported cases.
Scott Price, head of international operations for UPS, talked to Cheddar about the delivery giant's capacity for distributing COVID vaccines globally.
The impact of Texas' governor repealing many of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions is beginning to take shape.
Thomas Edison’s most prolific invention is arguably not the lightbulb we all know him for, but the lab in Menlo Park New Jersey that he used to create it.
Mitch Jackson, chief sustainability officer for FedEx, spoke to Cheddar about the delivery giant's $2 billion plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2040.
SpaceX's futuristic Starship has exploded after what looked to be a successful touchdown.
President Joe Biden says the U.S. expects to take delivery of enough coronavirus vaccines for all adult Americans by the end of May, two months earlier than anticipated.
Texas is lifting a COVID-19 mask mandate that was imposed last summer but has only been lightly enforced. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s announcement Tuesday makes Texas the largest state to do away with a face covering order.
Drugmaker Merck & Co. will help produce rival Johnson & Johnson’s newly approved coronavirus vaccine in an effort to expand supply more quickly.
The slaughter of nearly 900 cattle that have been stuck on a cargo ship in the Mediterranean for two months has been postponed until Thursday.
Susan Lucas Collins, global head of healthcare services at cloud communications company Twilio, talked to Cheddar about providing tools necessary to help smooth out the somewhat chaotic vaccine rollout in the United States.
