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Michigan health officials have documented the state’s first case of a rare and potentially serious case mushroom in an elderly person, a spokesperson confirmed to Fox News – but what is Candida auris?
On May 27, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Laboratory Office confirmed Candida auris in a sample taken from the drainage of the ear of a 76-year-old man with chronic ear infections and with no history of travel abroad in the previous three years, according to an MDHHS health alert shared with Fox News.
“There was no threat to the public and the patient’s care providers were aware and took appropriate precautions. No additional cases have been identified at this time,” wrote Lynn Sutfin, spokesperson for the MDHHS, to Fox News in an email Friday.
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The mushroom, Candida auris, is a harmful form of yeast which is considered dangerous for hospital and nursing home patients with serious medical problems. It is most deadly when it enters the bloodstream, heart, or brain. Outbreaks in healthcare facilities have been triggered when the fungus has spread through contact with patients or on contaminated surfaces.
The fungus is often multi-drug resistant and difficult to identify, according to the MDHHS health alert issued to local health departments, laboratories, epidemiologists and health partners following the case. State health officials said 90% of the samples are resistant to fluconazole, 30% resistant to polyene and 5% resistant to echinocandins.
“Patients exposed to C. auris can remain colonized for a long time, which exposes them to future C. auris infection and further spreads the yeast,” the alert said.
Michigan laboratories have been instructed to immediately send suspected or confirmed samples to the MDHHS Laboratory Office, as well as to report any suspected or confirmed cases within one day of diagnosis.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Candida auris is an emerging fungus that poses a serious threat to global health,” and notes that states like California, Florida, New York and Illinois each have reported over 100 probable and confirmed cases. from May 2020 to April 2021.
Outbreaks of “superbug” were also recently reported at a nursing home in Washington, DC, with a cluster of 101 C. auris cases and a cluster of 22 at two Dallas-area hospitals, the CDC reported. . A handful of patients had invasive fungal infections which were impermeable to the three major classes of drugs.
“This is really the first time that we are starting to see a cluster of resistance” in which patients seemed to pick up infections from each other, CDC’s Dr Meghan Lyman said, following the outbreaks in Dallas and Washington DC. Lyman noted that both are ongoing outbreaks and additional infections have been identified since April. But these added figures have not been reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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