A deadly, contagious and drug-resistant pathogen is endangering people, especially those patients who are already ill. The microbe is outlined as a ‘fungal superbug,’ and it is immune to most treatments. The fungus Candida auris (C. auris) has first discovered in Japan ten years ago, and it now exists in 17 countries, Canada inclusive.
The pathogen is considered a public health threat because it can quickly spread through skin contact, it is hard to discover, it’s immune to the majority of antifungal medication, it’s challenging to annihilate, and it’s specifically deadly for patients who are already sick.
Canadian doctors are being informed about the emergence of this pathogen after 19 cases were discovered in the country until now, including with one announced hospital eruption. 640 cases have been identified in the south side of the border in the last years, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) classifying it as a severe global threat.
A deadly, contagious, and drug-resistant pathogen appeared in Canada
As said by CDC, the microbe is especially disturbing because it is resistant to multiple medications, it’s had to discover with conventional laboratory techniques, and it’s accountable for epidemics in the healthcare environment.
Even though C. auris doesn’t impact healthy people, they can bear it on their skin and pass it on to sick people when they visit a clinic. The CDC said the microbe can lead to bloodstream infections, wound infections, and ear infections, sometimes with deadly consequences. CDC even gave a number: 30 to 60 percent of people having the infection have died. They, however, admitted that many of these patients had other severe afflictions that may have risen the risk of death.
Julianne Kus, a clinical microbiologist for Public Health Ontario, said that it is difficult when it comes to treatment because the pathogen is immune to the three main classes of antifungal medications, leaving doctors with not many options in terms of treatment. Public Health Ontario published its guidelines on how to prevent microbe transmission, how to detect it, and how to treat it.
