Drug-resistant Superbug Found in US

A form of the superbug Candida auris (C. auris) that is resistant to all antibiotic and antifungal treatments has been found in the U.S. for the first time, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

C. auris is an emerging, often multidrug-resistant yeast that is highly transmissible, resulting in health care–associated outbreaks, especially in long-term care facilities.

Since January 2021, the Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network has detected independent clusters of pan-resistant or echinocandin-resistant cases at two hospitals in Texas and at a nursing home in Washington, D.C. Echinocandin is the antifungal drug that has been the most effective treatment against the superbug since it emerged in Tokyo in 2009. C. auris can cause infections of the bloodstream, wounds, and the ear. 

These reported clusters in Texas and Washington, D.C. provide the first evidence suggesting that pan- or echinocandin-resistant C. auris strains might have been transmitted in U.S. health care settings, according to the CDC’s July 23 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

“Surveillance, public health reporting, and infection control measures are critical to containing further spread,” the report said.

C. auris is one of five superbugs on the CDC’s urgent list of pathogenic threats. 

In June, CMM reported researchers who studied cultures of C. auris collected at a Brazil hospital noted a steep increase in the resistance of the superbug to antifungal drugs used to treat it.

The results of the study, published in the Journal of Fungi, suggest that the C. auris outbreaks and increasing resistance to antibiotics may be related to changes in infection control practices during the coronavirus pandemic, including the limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as gloves.