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Deadly Drug-Resistant Fungus Sparks Outbreaks In UK (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: More than 200 patients in more than 55 UK hospitals were discovered by healthcare workers to be infected or colonized by the multi-drug resistant fungus Candida auris, a globally emerging yeast pathogen that has experts nervous. Three of the hospitals experienced large outbreaks, which as of Monday were all declared officially over by health authorities there. No deaths have been reported since the fungus was first detected in the country in 2013, but 27 affected patients have developed blood infections, which can be life-threatening. And about a quarter of the more than 200 cases were clinical infections. Officials in the UK aimed to assuage fear of the fungus and assure patients that hospitals were safe. "Our enhanced surveillance shows a low risk to patients in healthcare settings. Most cases detected have not shown symptoms or developed an infection as a result of the fungus," Dr Colin Brown, of Public Health England's national infection service, told the BBC.
Yet, public health experts are uneasy about the rapid emergence and level of drug resistance the pathogen is showing. In a surveillance update in July, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that C. auris "presents a serious global health threat." It was first identified in the ear of a patient in Japan in 2009. Since then, it has spread swiftly, showing up in more than a dozen countries, including the U.S., according to the CDC. So far, health officials have reported around 100 infections in nine U.S. states and more than 100 other cases where the fungus was detected but wasn't causing an infection.
Yet, public health experts are uneasy about the rapid emergence and level of drug resistance the pathogen is showing. In a surveillance update in July, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that C. auris "presents a serious global health threat." It was first identified in the ear of a patient in Japan in 2009. Since then, it has spread swiftly, showing up in more than a dozen countries, including the U.S., according to the CDC. So far, health officials have reported around 100 infections in nine U.S. states and more than 100 other cases where the fungus was detected but wasn't causing an infection.
I admit I'm a little confused. I'm getting mixed messages from this. Is the fungal infection deadly, or have there been no deaths from it. I admit I haven't read the source yet but it's sounding to me that it's not deadly and rather the concern is only the fact it's drug resistant.
US fear of socialised medicine makes them believe paying more than twice as much for the same outcomes with millions of people denied access is actually "superior".
I was in a motorcycle accident and no one asked for insurance info until after my third surgery. Too many people overstate how bad the US has if wrt medical care.
Try having an illness instead. See how that works out.
No sig today...
As a long-term athlete's foot patient, I've been under the impression that the anti-fungal drugs haven't worked very well for a very long time...
The U.S. is the best health care in the world ...for about the richest 2% of the population.
For the rest of us, it's so bad that we have shorter adult lifespans and higher infant mortality rates.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
That comment and the parent are complete lies and such obvious lies I'm surprised anyone went with it.
In the NHS you get care for as long as you need it, free of charge if you're a UK citizen*. It almost certainly will cost a lot less than in the US largely because the NHS is more efficient than a million doctors, hospitals, insurers and drug companies all spending on advertising and sending bills to each other and all extracting profits from the patients.
It's not all great. Because recent governments have introduced the private sector into the NHS, the kind of shortcuts (do the minimum the contract requires - charge fees for everything else), incompetence (get rid of lots of staff, specially the more experienced, hire some new cheap not-as-good ones) and fiddles (no-one ever checks so we'll make up the figures) which grow when profits are the main motive are creeping in there too.
* For those not poor, old or chronically ill, prescription medicines are £8.60 and dentistry costs a maximum of £244.30.
First, there have been no reported deaths from this infection as per the article, so how exactly is this deadly? Dangerous, potentially deadly? So, please, lets title these articles responsibly. The remainder of this post is not meant to bash the parent, just to define terms and clarify concepts. My opinion is at the end.
Not a doctor, but there is only a little overlap between antibiotics and antifungal medications.
The term antibiotic covers both anti-bacterial agents (e.g. penicillin) used against bacteria, and anti-fungals (e.g. fluconaole/Diflucan), and technically, they also refer to anti-virals (e.g. aciclovir), but in the most common use, antibiotics refer to antibacterials, and never to antivirals. There are no medications that treat both bacteria (prokaryotes [no nucleus]), fungus (eukaryotes [true nucleus]) simultaneously; yes, bleach (sodium hypochlorite) can destroy both, but internal use is discouraged [and as referenced in the wikipedia article, your body's neutrophils (a type of white blood cell - cells that fight infection) uses hypochlorous acid as an antimicrobial . So.....yes and no. [sorry that kept getting longer and longer]
This stuff is resistant to Diflucan (I'm not trying to spell the generic name correctly right now),
Flu con a zole - that's not too hard....Talimogene Laherparepvec...that's hard. :-)
which is often handed out with much less oversight than antibiotics.
Ummm, no. You can get pretty powerful topical antibiotics and topical antifungals over the counter. Fluconazole is an oral antifungal that still requires a prescription (at least in the US and other "responsible" countries).
Any bio-female could probably get a few doses for a yeast infection without seeing their doctor; calling in and asking is all most require since it is a common ailment.
It is a common ailment, but it is also a true infection that can be cultured and proven, and usually requires treatment. (I don't want you to poo-poo this aliment :-), pretty miserably for those afflicted), and unless there is a well established relationship between physician and patient, an exam is required (and strongly encouraged to rule out other more dangerous diagnoses).
The problem is that many primary care doctors have been told that C. albicans (the common human strain) can not become resistant. I was told the same, only to be corrected by a very indignant Tropical and Infectious Disease specialist who had seen that first line drug become useless in a few cases.
I see fluconazole resistant candida albicans frequently (reported 7% resistance rate), but I work at a tertiary care referral center, so YMMV. Never been under the illusion that it could not become resistant. Every organism (meaning microbial species) given enough time and opportunity can become resistant to just about anything.....The only thing that microbial organisms will never become resistant to is fire, well heat anyways (shout out to the the post below).
But this doesn't mean we need to panic and shut down Madagascar. There are other classes of drugs, like the old standby nystatin, and other families of antifungal medications in the larger azole drug category. This should be treatable if caught early. The danger is that drugs like nystatin can not be absorbed so