New Delhi: People with weak immune system are falling prey to this quietly spreading fungal infection across the globe which as of now has no permanent treatment according to Doctors.
Last year in the month of May, an elderly man was admitted to the Brooklyn branch of Mount Sinai Hospital for abdominal surgery and to the hospital’s surprise, the man’s blood test revealed he was infected with a newly discovered germ as deadly as it was mysterious, TOI reports.
The germ is a fungus called Candida Auris and preys on people with weakened immune systems. Over the past five years, the fungus has now taken roots in India, Pakistan and South Africa.
The fungus has hit a neonatal unit in Venezuela, swept through a hospital in Spain and has forced a prestigious British medical center to shut down its intensive care unit.
This fungus C Auris has also reached other parts of the world like New York, New Jersey and Illinois, and other regions of Asia.
The federal centers for disease control and prevention have now added this new fungus to a list of germs deemed as “urgent threats.”
What is Candida Auris
It is a fungus which when enters the bloodstream, causes life-threatening infections.
Who is at risk
People with highly weakened Immune System are at higher risk of getting infected apart from newborns.
The federal centres for diseases are keeping this confidential to avoid scaring the public in case of any recent outbreaks.
Countries affected so far
India, Pakistan, China, Japan, Russia, Australia, US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Kenya and list goes on with at least 587 cases reported from US alone, 309 cases in New York, 104 in New Jersey and 144 in Illinois, according to the CDC.
The elderly infected man at Mount Sinai died after 90 days in the hospital, but the fungus C Auris is so tenacious it did not die reports doctors.
“Everything was positive — the walls, the bed, the doors, the curtains, the phones, the sink, the whiteboard, the poles, the pump,” said Dr Scott Lorin, the hospital’s president.
“The mattress, the bed rails, the canister holes, the window shades, the ceiling, everything in the room was positive.”
Simply put, fungi, just like bacteria, are evolving defenses to survive modern medicines.
Now hospitals and local governments are reluctant to disclose outbreaks for fear of being seen as infection hubs. Not only this, even the CDC, under its agreement with states, is not allowed to make public the location or name of hospitals involved in outbreaks.
Note : Nearly half of the patients who contract C Auris die within 90 days, according to a statement from the CDC. The symptoms are quite ordinary like fever, aches, fatigue but an unhealthy person infected is at higher risk as these symptoms can be fatal.