Lyman et al/ Annals of Internal Medicine 2023 M. Both carriers and cases may transmit the fungus to others through direct contact with contaminated items. Some screening cases may develop into clinical cases, but others will clear the fungus and have no symptoms. Screening cases (light blue) are people who carry the fungus, but are not ill at the time of testing. Clinical cases (dark blue) are among people who had positive urine or blood tests for infections. The number of cases of Candida auris recorded each year has been increasing. Because people who get infected are often already sick, it can be hard to tell whether symptoms such as fevers are from the existing illness or an infection. The fungus, typically detected through blood or urine tests, usually infects people in health care settings such as hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and long-term care homes. auris infections popped up suddenly in hospitals on three continents, probably evolving to grow at human body temperature as a result of climate change ( SN: 7/26/19). A small percentage of carriers may later get sick from the fungus, says Meghan Lyman, a medical epidemiologist in the CDC’s Mycotic Diseases Branch in Atlanta, possibly developing bloodstream infections that carry a high risk of death. In tests of people at high risk of infection, researchers also found 4,041 individuals who carried the fungus in 2021 but were not sick at the time. “You worry because is telling you what could be a harbinger of things to come.” Casadevall, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was not involved in the CDC study. The rise of cases and antifungal resistance is “concerning,” says microbiologist and immunologist Arturo Casadevall, who studies fungal infections.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |