{"id":232469,"date":"2026-01-07T15:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/232469\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T15:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:01:10","slug":"dangerous-drug-resistant-fungus-spreads-across-n-y-n-j-hospitals-and-nursing-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/232469\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous, drug-resistant fungus spreads across N.Y., N.J. hospitals and nursing homes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A dangerous fungus is spreading across hospitals and nursing homes nationwide, including in New York and New Jersey.<\/p>\n<p>Candida auris is hard to detect and resistant to anti-fungal medicine. It\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/candida-auris\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">can cause serious infections<\/a>, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n<p>Health officials said there were more than 7,000 reported cases across the United States in 2025, which is a sharp increase from just a few years ago.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s being called a &#8216;superbug'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the CDC, most candida auris infections can be treated with a class of antifungal medications called echinocandins, but Hackensack Meridian Health published a medical review warning the fungus is becoming more resistant to medicine.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sometimes we get drug-resistant forms where there are no more antifungal drugs that are available to treat it. And that&#8217;s why it&#8217;s being called a &#8216;superbug,'&#8221; said Dr. David Perlin, chief scientific officer at the Center for Discovery and Innovation at Hackensack Meridian Health.<\/p>\n<p>He said the potentially deadly infection is spreading mostly in health care settings like hospitals and nursing homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Symptoms and spread of candida auris<\/p>\n<p>The symptoms of candida auris, which is a type of yeast, depend on how severe and where the infection is, according to the CDC.<\/p>\n<p>They could include fever or chills, but there isn&#8217;t a single common set of symptoms. It often causes no symptoms for healthy people, but can pose a serious threat to patients with severe underlying illnesses.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers say outdated diagnostics often misidentify the infection, which delays treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Because candida auris can\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/candida-auris-climate-change-fungal-infection-rare\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spread easily onto surfaces and surroundings<\/a>, asymptomatic patients may not realize they have it on their skin and can spread it to objects or people around them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you have a colonizer that can colonize the skin and can also persist for long periods of time, for example, on bedrails, on catheters, you have a situation where you have extensive transmission,&#8221; Perlin said.<\/p>\n<p>While researchers are testing new anti-fungal drugs, experts say strict infection control and early detection are the best defenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dangerous fungus is spreading across hospitals and nursing homes nationwide, including in New York and New Jersey.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-232469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}