According to the CDC, the most common antifungal drugs are becoming less and less effective. In this country, the number of cases is much lower, but it is important to keep an eye on the problem.
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- Veronika Szentpetery-Kessler
When it comes to antimicrobial resistance, the focus is usually on bacteria. But away from the limelight, the resistance of fungi to drugs is also growing: The US health authority Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently warned of the spread of infections with the resistant yeast fungus Candida auris (C. auris).
The number of such infections, which had been growing year on year since they first appeared in the United States in 2016, has tripled from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021. This is what CDC scientists write about the epidemiologist Meghan Lyman in the journal “Annals of Internal Medicine”.
(Bild: Robert Koch Institute )
Because C. auris spreads easily in healthcare facilities, can cause serious infections with high mortality rates, and is increasingly escaping popular therapeutics, the CDC now classifies it as an “urgent antimicrobial resistance threat.” Increasingly, echinocandins, the class of antifungal drugs most commonly recommended for treatment, are ineffective against C. auris.
