GENEVA \u2013 A deadly fungus is spreading rapidly across Europe\u2019s hospitals, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which warned of a serious threat to patients and healthcare systems.<\/p>\n
A record 1,346 cases of the Candidozyma auris (C. auris) fungus were reported in the region in the latest 2023 data, a 67 per cent increase from a year earlier, the ECDC said on Sept 11. There were no reported cases as recently as 2013. <\/p>\n
The fungus, which is difficult to treat because it is often resistant to antifungal drugs, survives on hospital surfaces and medical equipment and spreads easily between patients. <\/p>\n
It is particularly risky for people who are already sick, and mortality rates can be as high as 60 per cent. <\/p>\n
The ECDC warned that without timely action, outbreaks can quickly become entrenched at regional or national levels. <\/p>\n
Recent outbreaks have been reported in Cyprus, France and Germany. In Greece, Italy, Romania and Spain transmission is so widespread that individual outbreaks can no longer be distinguished, according to the agency. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis shows how rapidly it can establish itself in hospitals,\u201d said Dr Diamantis Plachouras, head of the ECDC\u2019s antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections section. \u201cBut this is not inevitable. Early detection and rapid, coordinated infection control can still prevent further transmission.\u201d <\/p>\n
Isolating patients in single rooms and disinfecting equipment can help limit the spread. The ECDC cited Denmark as an example of countries to have contained the fungus, after it controlled an outbreak and reported no new cases since. <\/p>\n
Still, many countries have significant gaps in their response. <\/p>\n
Of the 36 countries surveyed by the ECDC, only 17 have national surveillance systems for C. auris and just 15 have issued dedicated infection-prevention guidance. <\/p>\n
Funding for new antifungal drugs has been erratic. <\/p>\n
After surging to almost US$383 million (S$492 million) in 2022, there have been no new commitments in 2025, according to data compiled for Bloomberg by financial research platform PitchBook. <\/p>\n
Most investment has gone to a small group of companies such as Pulmocide and F2G. Broader backing has been limited by the difficulty of finding new drug targets and weak incentives in antifungals, including high development costs. BLOOMBERG<\/p>\n
Outbreaks and epidemicsInfectious diseasesDiseasesPrivate hospitalsPublic hospitals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA \u2013 A deadly fungus is spreading rapidly across Europe\u2019s hospitals, according to the European Centre for Disease…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-136226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}