Triple those from drug resistant strains: first causes global warming. In Italy there is the first report in Tuscany. a very contagious infection that spreads in healthcare settings
alarm for cases from fungal infectionespecially from the US and after the pandemic: a report published on Annals of Internal Medicine shows that the cases of White earshighly contagious fungal infection often called in the media fungo killerI’m almost doubled (+95%) between 2019 and 2021. Not only that, according to i Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), among the cases surveyed the number of infections resistant to available drugs tripled. A few months ago the World Health Organization (WHO) had included Candida auris in the list of pathogenic fungi with high priority.
The first reports
A few days ago in Pisa the first Candida auris infection of this year was ascertained (the first after 8 months), diagnosed at the Cisanello hospital. Every year in our country they are registered some casesespecially widespread in the hospitals.
The fungus was first isolated in 2009 in Japan from a sample from a woman’s ear. The first specimen known to date, however, dates back to 1996. In Italy, the first case of invasive infection was identified in 2019, followed by an outbreak that affected the northern regions (in particular the hospitals in Liguria) in the pandemic period 2020-2021.
At risk
The pathogen has a mortality ranging from 30% to 70%: if adequate therapy is not adopted, capable of causing serious infections especially in multipathological subjects, because it is resistant to at least one of the three classes of antifungals available, the echinocandins. Also very contagious: is transmitted via the contact with an infected but also through surfaces. And it is difficult to eradicate because it is resistant to common antiseptics.
Symptoms
It is also difficult to detect because infections are diagnosed by culture of blood or other body fluids. However, in tests it can be confused with other species of Candida. The symptoms then are generics, because often those affected are patients with many other diseases present: The clinical pictures most frequently encountered in C. auris infections – writes the Istituto Superiore di Sanit (ISS) – are: infections of the blood stream, intra-abdominal infections, wound infections and ear infections. Furthermore, C. auris has been isolated from bile fluid, respiratory tract and urine, but it is not yet clear whether it can cause infections, in the lungs and bladder.
The damages of climate change
The increase in cases of fungal infections would be one of the consequences on our health
global warming
: the increase in temperatures would favor the right conditions for the adaptation of the fungus to man. Further proof against climate change is the fact that Candida auris’ ability to infect humans emerged simultaneously on three continents, America, Africa and Asia, in distinct strains.
March 21, 2023 (change March 21, 2023 | 5:59 pm)
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