the CDC is warning of a new Public Health Care threat a drug-resistant and potentially deadly fungus that's been rapidly spreading through U.S health care facilities and its Origins stem from our area government records show Candida auris cases are rising at alarming rates with the most severe illness caused in people with weakened immune systems senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports I think we have to get this onto people's radar researcher David perlin says a potentially deadly fungus called Candida auris spreads by contact with contaminated medical equipment and touchable surfaces where it can survive for weeks people can catch it and spread it without getting sick themselves you can easily touch someone and transmit it you know to a bed rail from a bed rail to another patient and it'll it'll it'll colonize the patient's skin so you'll you'll see it there and and you see this among our sickest patients as it inflames stuff particularly for a patient who's sick or immune compromised it can then get into the bloodstream and that's when it becomes dangerous or deadly Bergen New Bridges Dr John varbero says C. auris is highly drug resistant CDC Maps show the fungus expanded from a New York New Jersey hot spot in 2016 spreading moderately until right before the covid pandemic in 2019 that's when the fungal infection really took off in 2022 the U.S logged about 5 700 positive tests for CRS and 2400 clinical cases in New Jersey CRS cases have clustered in the state's Northeast region and last year totaled 94. it seems to be an outbreak meaning cases are expanding in ways that are unpredictable mainly and almost exclusively in healthcare settings during the pandemic you know we're probably being more vigilant for Airborne diseases enough for uh not for other infections researchers in one study found the covid-19 pandemic may have exacerbated C. auris transmission and Health Care Facilities both infections and positive tests for CRS spiked highest at New Jersey long-term acute care facilities 440 compared to 100 at acute care hospitals and 62 at skilled nursing facilities with ventilators between 2017 and 2020. it impacted mostly older folks average age 70. it seems to infect those that are very ill and have been in hospitals or Healthcare settings for long periods of time so think Subacute rehabs nursing homes vent facilities uh therapy areas those are the places right now that we currently screen for C. auris C. auris.

Holy names of Dr Suraj Saggar says facility should test and group together patients who are colonized or infected by C.auris because they can remain contagious once the fungus colonizes a patient or a healthcare worker it can live on their bodies indefinitely there are no effective decolonization regimens for Candor Oris so once someone is colonized in a facility they will remain in isolation until a time that they do leave certain areas of the institutions are reserved for those that were waiting for the results to come back so you're kind of a to be determined and or if someone is deemed to be positive those patients are cohorted together uh to ensure that it's not spread it's out there we have to be cognizant I think there are things we can do to be more proactive.

Perlin co-authored a C. auris study that concluded Health Care Facilities need improved tools and a new class of medicines to tackle the fungus we need better Diagnostics and we need more drugs I mean that's that's the bottom line I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news foreign