The physical space of the MSK Library is permanently closed to visitors as of Friday, May 17, 2024. Please visit this guide for more information.
The physical space of the MSK Library is permanently closed to visitors as of Friday, May 17, 2024. Please visit this guide for more information.
Candida auris is an emerging fungus that presents a serious global health threat. CDC’s Mycotic Diseases Branch tracks the number of C. auris cases in the United States over time to assess the impact of prevention strategies and inform public health practices. In the United States, most cases of C. auris result from local spread within and among healthcare facilities in the same city or state. However, healthcare facilities should be on the lookout for new introductions of C. auris from patients who received healthcare elsewhere in the United States or abroad in areas with C. auris transmission.
This information is based on C. auris case counts provided by local and state health departments to the CDC every month. This data is summarized in the maps and data tables below and includes clinical C. auris cases from 2013, the year of the earliest known US case.
Tracking Candida auris, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
Candida auris (C. auris), an emerging fungus considered an urgent antimicrobial resistance (AR) threat, spread at an alarming rate in U.S. healthcare facilities in 2020-2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Equally concerning was a tripling in 2021 of the number of cases that were resistant to echinocandins, the antifungal medicine most recommended for treatment of C. aurisinfections. In general, C. auris is not a threat to healthy people. People who are very sick, have invasive medical devices, or have long or frequent stays in healthcare facilities are at increased risk for acquiring C. auris. CDC has deemed C. auris as an urgent AR threat, because it is often resistant to multiple antifungal drugs, spreads easily in healthcare facilities, and can cause severe infections with high death rates.
“The rapid rise and geographic spread of cases is concerning and emphasizes the need for continued surveillance, expanded lab capacity, quicker diagnostic tests, and adherence to proven infection prevention and control,” said CDC epidemiologist Dr. Meghan Lyman, lead author of the paper.