Drug-Resistant Fungus Spreading Through Hospitals: What To Know In NJ

NEW JERSEY — A deadly, drug-resistant fungus is continuing to spread in hospitals and care facilities around the nation, including in New Jersey, state and federal data shows.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Candida auris (C. auris) is an "emerging fungus that presents a serious global health threat” that kills more than one-third of people who contract it.

The number of cases has been increasing in the U.S. since the CDC began tracking C. Auris in 2016, with patients in New York and New Jersey among those early confirmed cases.

Recently, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported a surge in cases in healthcare facilities, while another study showed a rapid increase of C. Auris within a Florida health system.

The fungus is mostly found in health care facilities, particularly in long-term acute care hospitals and nursing homes that use ventilators. People who are on feeding tubes, catheters, and IV lines are also vulnerable. It is generally not a threat to healthy people, experts said, but they can carry the fungus.

“Patients can carry C. auris on their body, even if it is not making them sick. This is called colonization,” according to the New Jersey Department of Health’s website. “When people in hospitals and nursing homes are colonized, C. auris can spread from their bodies and can get on other people or nearby objects, allowing the fungus to spread to people around them.”

From 2016 to 2024, there were 576 clinical cases of C. auris in New Jersey, the state health department said. The majority of cases have been recorded in Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Union and Middlesex counties.

When the fungus enters the bloodstream of an individual and spreads throughout the body, serious invasive infections may occur. The fungus also doesn’t usually respond to commonly used antifungal drugs, making infections difficult to treat.

C. auris can also stay on surfaces in healthcare facilities (such as bed rails, bed sheets, door handles, oxygen masks and more) for long periods of time and can survive on plastic for multiple weeks, health officials said. It requires specific products for disinfection, according to the state health department.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, symptoms of C. auris depend where in your body the fungus infects. Symptoms can include fever, chills, low blood pressure, extreme tiredness, a high heart rate, and low body temperature.

The CDC encourages health care workers to be proactive and vigilant to contain the spread of the deadly fungus, including maintaining adherence to hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfecting patient care environments, screening contacts of new case patients and laboratory testing of clinical specimens to detect new cases.

If C. auris is suspected or identified, contact your local health department and the NJDOH Communicable Disease Service at 609-826-5964.