Deadly Fungus Lurks In Most NYC Hospitals, DOH Report Says

NEW YORK CITY — A drug-resistant, potentially deadly fungus has been quietly spreading through 140 medical centers across New York City, a new report from the state's health department shows.

Forty-nine out of New York City's 66 hospitals —as well as three hospices and 85 long-term care facilities — have cared for patients with Candida auris as of June 28, according to lists released this week by the New York State Department of Health.

C. auris — a drug-resistant germ that attacks those with weak immune systems — has been silently wreaking havoc across the globe, hitting a neonatal unit in Venezuela, shutting down a British medical center and spreading across India, Pakistan and South Africa, the New York Times reported in April.

In New York State, the number of reported infections increased fivefold in just two years, jumping from 26 confirmed cases in 2016 to 132 in 2018, according to the DOH.

The average age of patients was 69 and most cases were reported in New York City.

Brooklyn and Manhattan have the most hospitals with C. auris sightings with 15 each, followed by Queens' nine, The Bronx's seven, and Staten Island's three, the DOH list shows.

Hospitals

Brooklyn also has 36 long-term care facilities and three hospices that treated patients with C. auris, while Queens has 29, The Bronx has nine, Manhattan has six and Staten Island has five.

Long-Term Care Facilities and Hospices

Between 30 and 60 percent of those with an invasive C. auris infections have died, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that tracks its international and decades long growth. CDC experts note it remains unclear what role the fungus played since patients typically have other serious ailments.

The DOH report notes that patients did not necessarily catch C. auris at the medical facility where it was reported.

"Persons who are colonized or infected with C. auris tend to have multiple serious medical problems," the report reads. "Because a person can be asymptomatically colonized for an indeterminate period, it is not usually possible to determine where C. auris was acquired."

Read the complete report here.