Deadly fungus detected in Hawaii patient
Mar. 24—There has been one confirmed case in Hawaii of Candida auris, a deadly fungus that has sparked national concern as it's spread rapidly through hospitals and other health care facilities in about two dozen states.
There has been one confirmed case in Hawaii of Candida auris, a deadly fungus that has sparked national concern as it's spread rapidly through hospitals and other health care facilities in about two dozen states. The person was diagnosed after visiting an outpatient facility in Hawaii in September, but contracted the fungus in another state, according to the state Department of Health.
DOH said a follow-up investigation, which it described as thorough, found no evidence that the fungus had spread within any health care facilities. Still, state health officials say they expect to identify more cases of Candida auris in the future given the steep rise in cases nationally.
DOH said the patient who was diagnosed with the fungus in Hawaii did not require treatment and is doing fine.
State health officials said protocols are in place to ensure that any specimen collected from a patient who is suspected of being infected with the fungus is submitted quickly to a lab for testing. DOH did not have a figure Thursday for how many tests have been conducted for the fungus.
Earlier this week the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the fungus, which is resistant to multiple antifungal drugs and has high death rates, had spread at an alarming rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationally, there were 476 cases reported by local and state health departments in 2019, according to CDC data. In 2021 about 1, 470 cases were reported, and in 2022 there were nearly 2, 400 cases. The numbers represent clinical cases, in which a patient is tested for the fungus during the course of care for a medical condition.
Health officials have also been screening for the fungus, taking swabs from patients to determine whether they may be carrying the organism on their body without signs of infection. Since 2013, the date of the in the United States, there have been 13, 163 cases confirmed through screening measures, according to CDC.
The fungus has now been reported in more than two dozen states, with most cases being reported in California, Nevada, Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Florida.
Roughly 30 % to 60 % of patients with Candida auris infections have died, according to the CDC, but it's not clear to what degree the infection was a primary cause of death because many of the patients already had serious illnesses.
The fungus primarily attacks older people who have weakened immune systems. The risk of acquiring the fungus can increase substantially in health care settings where patients undergo surgery or have devices such as breathing and feeding tubes and catheters inserted into their body.
The CDC has called the fungus a urgent public health threat in large part because the fungus can evade treatment. In 2021 the number of cases that were resistant to echinocandins, the most promising medicine for the fungus, tripled, according to the CDC.
When the fungus was first identified in the United States, health officials hoped that infection control measures implemented in hospitals and long-term care facilities could contain its spread. But the CDC said that poor infection control practices in health care facilities have led to increased spread, conditions that may have been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The higher case numbers might also reflect increased testing for the fungus.
In Hawaii, Department of Health officials said the risk of the fungus to the general public is low and that it is working with health care facilities on infection control.
"HDOH continues to collaborate with healthcare facilities in the state to provide timely identification of C. auris and facilitate infection control practices, including good hand hygiene to help prevent the spread of this superbug, " the department said in a statement.
