An invasive drug-resistant fungus is spreading rapidly through U.S. hospitals and has become more threatening worldwide, earning the moniker “superbug,” according to researchers.
But there is hope for new treatments against the infection, which has become drug resistant over the years, according to an article published by the American Society of Microbiology.
Candida auris (C. auris) has been around for decades, but cases of the bug have tripled since the pandemic, building resistance against treatment and human immunity. More than 3,000 cases were reported in the United States through Dec. 20, 2025, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The fungus is particularly threatening to those with chronic illness or those fighting serious illness.
In fact, invasive fungal infections pose a major — and often fatal — health risk to immunocompromised individuals, including organ transplant recipients, patients with influenza or other viral and bacterial pneumonias, and patients with cancer, according to a report in the Journal of the American Society of Microbiology.
“Candida auris is a high-priority human fungal pathogen, causing infection outbreaks of high mortality in healthcare settings,” the report said. “Invasive fungal diseases affect approximately 6.5 million people every year … This number is expected to rise due to increasing numbers of immunosuppressed people, including the elderly, premature infants.”
Current antifungal drugs are often rendered ineffective by aggressive strains such as Candida auris — considered “an urgent antimicrobial resistance threat” by the CDC, as well as Candida glabrata and Aspergillus fumigatus.
More than 3 million people across the world die each year as a result of fungal infections, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
New anti-fungal treatments are currently in the pipeline, according to Dr. Marc Siegel, a physician, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and senior medical analyst for Fox News, recently said on Fox News. It is most often resisted by humans, but resistance is beginning to wane amid drug resistance, the doctor told Fox News.
Often described as a “superbug fungus,” it is spreading globally and increasingly resisting human immune systems, Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation researchers said in a review published in early December, Fox News reported.
“If it gets you sick, it’s got a 30 to 60% death rate,” the doctor told Fox News.
The review findings reinforce prior CDC warnings that have labeled C. auris an “urgent antimicrobial threat.” It is the first fungal pathogen to receive that designation as U.S. cases have surged in hospitals and long-term care centers among the seriously ill and immunocompromised individuals.
Approximately 7,000 cases were identified across dozens of states in 2025, according to the CDC, and it has reportedly been identified in at least 60 countries.
Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews warned of outdated diagnostics and limited treatments.
A study was conducted by Dr. Neeraj Chauhan, of the Hackensack Meridian CDI in New Jersey; Dr. Anuradha Chowdhary, of the University of Delhi’s Medical Mycology Unit, and Dr. Michail Lionakis, chief of the clinical mycology program at the National Institutes of Health. It stressed the need to develop “novel antifungal agents with broad-spectrum activity against human fungal pathogens, to improve diagnostic tests and to develop immune- and vaccine-based adjunct modalities for the treatment of high-risk patients.”