Candida auris, a drug-resistant yeast first detected in the U.S. in 2016, is increasingly spreading in hospitals and healthcare facilities. From 2022–2024, health departments reported 13,507 cases to the CDC, mostly among men over 45. The fungus often colonizes skin, resists fluconazole, and can cause invasive, sometimes fatal infections in vulnerable patients. Experts urge stronger infection control, better surveillance, and development of new antifungal drugs.
Drug-Resistant Candida auris Is Rising in U.S. Hospitals — Experts Warn of Limited Treatment Options
Oliver Kurzai, director of the National Reference Center for Invasive Fungus Infections, holds a petri dish containing the yeast Candida auris in a laboratory at Würzburg University in Würzburg, Germany, in 2018. (Nicolas Armer / dpa / picture alliance via Getty Images file)(Nicolas Armer)
Candida auris (C. auris), a drug-resistant yeast first detected in the United States in 2016, is increasingly affecting hospitals and other healthcare facilities nationwide, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analysis finds. Between 2022 and 2024, state and territorial health departments voluntarily reported 13,507 cases to the CDC, with steady year-to-year increases and a concentration of infections among men over 45 in clinical settings.
Key Findings
The CDC report shows that C. auris often colonizes skin for long periods and spreads readily in healthcare environments, transferring from patients to surfaces or to people with open wounds. The agency did not include deaths in the report; however, prior research has estimated roughly a 30% mortality rate among people who become infected.
Why It’s Dangerous
C. auris is frequently resistant to the common antifungal fluconazole and is becoming harder to treat with alternative medications. Clinicians currently rely primarily on the echinocandin class of antifungals, but resistance to available drugs is emerging, narrowing treatment options.
“Sometimes the fungi sits on our skin and becomes a part of our ecosystem,” said Dr. Waleed Javaid, Chief Quality Officer at West Virginia University Hospitals. “It might sit on a wound and cause infection, and that is the problem we want to resolve.”
Clinical Presentation and Control
Healthy people usually carry C. auris without symptoms, but patients with weakened immune systems or other serious illnesses can develop invasive disease — including bloodstream infections that present with fever and chills. Because the fungus can persist on skin and environmental surfaces, prompt identification, strict infection control measures, and thorough cleaning with hospital-grade disinfectants are essential once a case is detected.
“The concern is that this organism is becoming resistant to [our] remaining drugs, and we have very few antifungal agents,” said Dr. Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Broader Concerns
Fungi are biologically closer to humans than bacteria are, which limits the number of safe drug targets and makes antifungal drug development challenging. Experts have also suggested that rising global temperatures may be helping some fungal pathogens adapt to survive at human body temperatures, potentially contributing to the emergence and spread of organisms like C. auris.
What Health Systems Should Do
Public health officials and clinicians emphasize the need for enhanced surveillance, rapid laboratory detection, diligent infection prevention practices in healthcare facilities, and accelerated development of new antifungal treatments. Preventing spread in hospitals — where vulnerable patients concentrate — remains a top priority.
Source: Report based on CDC data; originally reported by NBC News.
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