Over the past nine months, the number of US cases of an emerging, multi-drug resistant fungus has ballooned from 7 to more than 122. What’s more, the fungus, Candida auris, seems to be spreading, according to a field report the Centers for Disease Control released Thursday. So-called ‘superbugs’ usually reference bacteria that are especially hard to kill, having evolved resistance to multiple antibiotics. Superbugs have become a major problem, with some bacteria evolving
resistance to so many drugs there is no longer a readily available way to kill them. To stave off an antibiotic apocalypse, we may eventually need to discover lots of new drugs, or alternatemethods of vanquishing these tough critters. Like those bacteria, C. auris appears to have evolved resistance to multiple drugs. It causes severe illness and has a high-mortality rate, especially among high-risk, hospitalized patients. READ MORE
