Emerging Fungal Infection Spreading At Alarming Rate: See IL Data

ILLINOIS — A drug-resistant, potentially deadly fungus has been spreading at a troubling rate in U.S. healthcare facilities, including some in Illinois, according to a new government study.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found the number of cases of the fungus Candida auris, or C. auris, “spread at an alarming rate” from 2020 to 2021. Equally troubling, the agency said in a news release Monday, is that the number of cases resistant to a commonly prescribed antifungal medicine more than tripled.

According to the CDC, C. auris is an "emerging fungus that presents a serious global health threat."

The fungus is found normally throughout the body and on the skin. It’s not a threat to healthy people, but for people with serious medical conditions that land them in the hospital or other healthcare facilities, infections can be deadly. C. auris kills about one-third of people who contract it.

CDC data shows 276 clinical cases of C. auris have been reported in Illinois in 2022, the most recent period for which data is available. That’s down slightly from 281 cases reported in 2021.

Illinois trailed only California and New York in the highest number of C. auris cases last year, according to CDC data. California reported 311 cases while in New York, 283 cases were reported last year. Florida, which ranked fourth, finished the year with 220 reported cases, according to federal data.

The Illinois Department of Public Health tracked cases between 2016 and 2022 and reported that far and away, Chicago and Cook County tallied the highest number of cases. During that time, 454 cases were reported in Chicago and 397 were reported in Cook County outside the city limits. Only 70 cases were reported in a total of 13 other Illinois counties combined.

The agency’s website said that state health officials are working with local health departments to implement and maintain infection control practices to reduce transmission – including cleaning and disinfecting environmental surfaces and shared equipment, hand hygiene, gloves, gowns for bacteria, viruses, fungus, and other organisms that can cause illness.

Public health officials are conducting surveillance for clinical cases and also screening individuals (swabbing the skin of patients/residents) in healthcare facilities where clinical cases C. auris have been found, officials said.

The CDC said poor general infection and control practices in healthcare facilities are a likely cause of the spread, though increased screening may also explain the increase. The agency said the timing of the increase is also likely tied to the strain put on healthcare facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The rapid rise and geographic spread of case is concerning and emphasizes the need for continuing surveillance, expanded lab capacity, quicker diagnostic tests, and adherence to proven infection prevention and control,” CDC epidemiologist Dr. Meghan Lyman, the lead author of the paper, said in the news release.

The first U.S. case of C. auris was reported in 2016. Since then, 3,270 clinical cases in which an infection was present and 7,413 screening cases confirming the fungus but not an infection had been reported by Dec. 31, 2021.

Clinical cases have increased every year, but the most rapid rise was from 2020-2021, when 17 states identified their first-ever cases of C. auris, according to the CDC.

Nationwide, clinical cases rose from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021. Screening cases tripled from 2020 to 2021, for a total of 4,041. Screening is important to prevent the spread by identifying patients carrying the fungus so that infection prevention controls can be used, according to the CDC.