A rare and dangerous fungal infection has been spreading across the United States in recent years — and a primary theory is that climate change is driving its rapid rise.
The Wikipedia article is perhaps more helpful than the news story.
Fungi are much closer to animals in evolutionary terms than bacteria. Many substances which effectively kill fungi are harmful to animals, including humans. Antibacterial antibiotics are mostly useless. There exist antifungal antibiotics, but their selection is limited. Vaccination is possible, but not yet feasible in people. A mouse has been successfully vaccinated against Candida auris and gained some protection.
Fungal diseases are generally slower compared to viral (very fast) and bacterial (fast) diseases, but harder to wipe out.
This fungus is generally a threat in hospitals, where people with compromised immune systems and open wounds may be encountered. A description of a Candida outbreak in a medical setting can be found here. It broke out in the intensive care unit of a London hospital. Many patients had wounds, catheters or intravenous lines. They resorted to isolating every patient, disinfecting rooms with agressive substances, using plentiful chrorhexidine to prevent infection via wounds and lines, and antifungals to treat patients.
Nobody died at the Royal Brompton Hospital, but the mess was severe. Candidasis of the blood (typically after entry through a wound) has a high level of mortality. Whether it is a case fatality ratio or infection fatality ratio - no idea. With new diseases, one typically learns the CFR first and IFR much later, except in hospitals where you can test every person.
Next year, the US CDC described it as a “catastrophic threat”. Antifungals that target Candida with less side effects, and a vaccine against it, are highly sought after. I trust they will be found, but not soon - this is not COVID, it spreads slowly, so everyone isn’t running (yet) to put a lid on it.
The hypothesis about how it crossed to humans, is summarized by this picture. Wetlands -> thermotolerance -> birds -> agricultural setting -> humans -> hospital setting. I’m not sure if this guess is correct, but it has explanatory value.
Apparently it was capable of crossing species barriers anyway, because it’s a generic sort of decomposer fungus - it needs nothing highly specific, and breaks down a variety of biomolecules for food. What is notable: it gained resistance to antifungals before entering people. Probably through agricultural use.
The Wikipedia article is perhaps more helpful than the news story.
Fungi are much closer to animals in evolutionary terms than bacteria. Many substances which effectively kill fungi are harmful to animals, including humans. Antibacterial antibiotics are mostly useless. There exist antifungal antibiotics, but their selection is limited. Vaccination is possible, but not yet feasible in people. A mouse has been successfully vaccinated against Candida auris and gained some protection.
Fungal diseases are generally slower compared to viral (very fast) and bacterial (fast) diseases, but harder to wipe out.
This fungus is generally a threat in hospitals, where people with compromised immune systems and open wounds may be encountered. A description of a Candida outbreak in a medical setting can be found here. It broke out in the intensive care unit of a London hospital. Many patients had wounds, catheters or intravenous lines. They resorted to isolating every patient, disinfecting rooms with agressive substances, using plentiful chrorhexidine to prevent infection via wounds and lines, and antifungals to treat patients.
Nobody died at the Royal Brompton Hospital, but the mess was severe. Candidasis of the blood (typically after entry through a wound) has a high level of mortality. Whether it is a case fatality ratio or infection fatality ratio - no idea. With new diseases, one typically learns the CFR first and IFR much later, except in hospitals where you can test every person.
Next year, the US CDC described it as a “catastrophic threat”. Antifungals that target Candida with less side effects, and a vaccine against it, are highly sought after. I trust they will be found, but not soon - this is not COVID, it spreads slowly, so everyone isn’t running (yet) to put a lid on it.
The hypothesis about how it crossed to humans, is summarized by this picture. Wetlands -> thermotolerance -> birds -> agricultural setting -> humans -> hospital setting. I’m not sure if this guess is correct, but it has explanatory value.
Apparently it was capable of crossing species barriers anyway, because it’s a generic sort of decomposer fungus - it needs nothing highly specific, and breaks down a variety of biomolecules for food. What is notable: it gained resistance to antifungals before entering people. Probably through agricultural use.