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CDC: Superbug fungus a 'serious global health threat'

BOSTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is out with a warning about a life threatening “superbug” fungus that has sickened hundreds of people across the country.

The CDC says Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungal infection, is spreading in healthcare facilities and is “a serious global health threat.”

587 cases of C. auris have been confirmed in the United States over the last few years. More than two-thirds of infected patients were located in New York and New Jersey. Massachusetts had seven cases in 2017, but none since.

Dr. Michael Mansour, an infectious diseases expert at Massachusetts General Hospital, told Boston 25 News C. auris is difficult to treat and symptoms are hard to detect because the fungus often preys on people with weakened immune systems by infecting the bloodstream.

“Its not really been a problem of a healthy individual,” Mansour said. “It's an infection for those with very advanced diseases.”

People who have recently spent time in nursing homes and have lines and tubes going into their body, such as breathing tubes and feeding tubes, seem to be at highest risk for C. auris infection.

Medical experts said one in three people with an invasive C. auris infection die.

The germ can easily spread through contact with contaminated surfaces.

“One thing we've learned about it is it's very sticky,” Mansour said. “It likes to stick to surfaces.”

Mansour said the rare and deadly fungal disease is resistant to the typical cleaning products healthcare facilities often use.

The CDC has developed specific cleaning procedures from rooms where patients with a C. auris infection are treated. Regular cleaning products won’t remove the germ.

“If you had C. auris and you were healthy and were not aware and you rode the MBTA, it would be on the poles, on the seats your sitting on,” Mansour said.

The CDC added infections have been found in patients of all ages, from infants to the elderly.

C. auris first appeared globally in Japan in 2009 and in the United States in 2016.

For more information about C. auris, visit the CDC's website.