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Deadly fungal infection now reported in US

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jacksdad View Drop Down
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    Posted: March 10 2017 at 5:35pm


Deadly fungal infection that doctors have been fearing now reported in U.S.
By Lena H. Sun March 10 at 8:00 AM

Nearly three dozen people in the United States have been diagnosed with a deadly and highly drug-resistant fungal infection since federal health officials first warned U.S. clinicians last June to be on the lookout for the emerging pathogen that has been spreading around the world.

The fungus, a strain of a kind of yeast known as Candida auris, has been reported in a dozen countries on five continents starting in 2009, when it was found in an ear infection in a patient in Japan. Since then, the fungus has been reported in Colombia, India, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, South Korea, Venezuela and the United Kingdom.

Unlike garden variety yeast infections, this one causes serious bloodstream infections, spreads easily from person to person in health-care settings, and survives for months on skin and for weeks on bed rails, chairs and other hospital equipment. Some strains are resistant to all three major classes of antifungal drugs. Based on information from a limited number of patients, up to 60 percent of people with these infection have died. Many of them also had other serious underlying illnesses.

Those at greatest risk are individuals who have been in intensive care for a long time or who are on ventilators or have central line catheters inserted into a large vein.

In the United States, the largest number of infections has been reported in New York, with at least 28 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections have also been reported in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Last June, the CDC sent an urgent alert to clinicians to start looking for the infections, which are difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods.


Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
“As soon as we put out that alert, we started to get information about cases and now we know more about how it spreads and how it’s acting,” Tom Chiller, the CDC’s top fungal expert, said in an interview Thursday. The CDC now tracks the number of infections, updating the case count every few weeks.

In addition to the 35 infected patients, an additional 18 were carrying the organism but weren't sickened by it.

The microbe is among a group of newly emerging drug-resistant threats, health officials said.

“These pathogens are increasing, they’re new, they’re scary and they’re very difficult to combat,” said Anne Schuchat, CDC’s acting director, during a briefing in Washington this week about the growing danger from antimicrobial resistance.

World Health Organization releases list of antibiotic-resistant 'priority pathogens' Play Video1:07

The World Health Organization published a list naming 12 superbugs that pose the greatest threat to human health on Feb. 27, in a push for more research and drug development to fight these pathogens. (WHO via AP)
Of the first seven cases that were reported to the CDC last fall, four patients had bloodstream infections and died during the weeks to months after the pathogen was identified. Officials said they couldn't be sure whether the deaths were caused by the infection because all the individuals had other serious medical conditions. Five patients had the fungus initially isolated from blood, one from urine, and one from the ear.

The infection is still relatively rare. “It's really hitting the sickest of the sick,” Chiller said.

So far, the fungus doesn't seem to be evolving into new strains within the United States. Because the country doesn't yet have any “homegrown” strains of the deadly fungus, “it gives us a better opportunity to contain it and stop it from spreading,” Chiller said.

In other countries, infections have been resistant to all three major types of antifungal drugs, but so far the U.S. cases have been treatable with existing drugs.

Because invasive bloodstream infections with Candida are common in hospitalized patients in the United States, health officials are concerned that this deadly strain could “get into that mix,” Chiller said. Unlike Candida infections in the mouth, throat or vagina (which are typically called yeast infections), invasive yeast infections can affect the blood, heart, brain, eyes, bones and other parts of the body and are more dangerous.

Among infectious disease clinicians and laboratory personnel, infections involving fungi don't typically ring the same kind of alarm bells as antibiotic-resistant bacteria — until now.

“This is a paradigm shift, because Candida is not generally thought of as highly resistant or passed person to person,” Chiller said.

Since the CDC issued its alert in June, the agency has provided funds and additional expertise to help regional laboratories and hospitals identify the organism.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/03/10/deadly-fungal-infection-that-doctors-have-been-fearing-now-reported-in-u-s/?utm_term=.14cc3005423b

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"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 10 2017 at 8:31pm
Well something is going to get us...looks like another way to die!
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jacksdad View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jacksdad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2017 at 10:09am
Originally posted by FluMom FluMom wrote:

Well something is going to get us...looks like another way to die!


Optimistic bunch, ain't we?
"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep"
"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2017 at 3:32pm
REALISTS , Jacksdad Wink lol

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2017 at 7:14pm
Sorry, I just call it as I see it!

My father when he was in his 40's was worried about dying. His old wise Doctor said, "Mike, we are all going to die of something so quit worrying."      
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CRS, DrPH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2017 at 7:38pm
"Candida auris was first discovered in Japan nearly eight years ago and has since spread to Colombia, India, Kenya, Israel, Kuwait, Pakistan, Venezuela, South Korea, and Great Britain."

http://www.inquisitr.com/4051686/deadly-fungal-infection-candida-auris-sickens-dozens-in-u-s/

...why does this pattern of disease spread not surprise me?  

Many of these countries severely abuse antibiotics and other drugs, making them next to worthless.   They end up creating multi-drug resistant organisms that are then carried far and wide via migration, tourism and commerce.  

This candida sounds like a really bad actor, can't say I'd ever want to experience it!


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote jacksdad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2017 at 10:02pm
My father-in-law contracted coccidioidal meningitis maybe twenty years ago working as a landscaper here in San Diego, Chuck. It was touch and go for a while because it took a while to diagnose it. On a hunch, someone sent a sample of CSF to Irvine where they were able to screen it for fungal infections.

Coincidentally, a few months later I was working on an ambulance crew that took a patient with the same condition to a physical therapy appointment, but his diagnosis had come too late to prevent severe complications. He was completely disabled and barely able to communicate, and his arms and legs were so contracted that he had to be lifted and carried everywhere. Awful disease and hard to treat, as was the case back then with many fungal infections. We have many more treatment options now, but as you mentioned, we could easily exhaust those if we over-prescribe as we've done with so many other medications.


"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep"
"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary.
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