Health officials across the Rio Grande Valley said they are keeping an eye on the rising cases of a potentially deadly fungus.<\/p>\n
Officials said the fungus \u2014 known as Candida Auris \u2014 is not a current risk to the public, but it can be deadly for patients in hospitals and nursing homes.<\/p>\n
The fungus spreads primarily in hospitals and long-term care facilities. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Candida Auris is resistant to several drugs and can cause severe infections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Hidalgo County Health Department reported around 150 confirmed cases this year.<\/p>\n
Cameron County health officials reported 40 cases of Candida Auris so far this year, compared to the total amount of 50 cases reported in 2024.<\/p>\n
Officials expect those cases to go up by the end of the year, and healthy people are also at risk of contracting this fungus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really more of a threat to chronically ill people who are in a healthcare setting, but it’s still important to monitor it,\u201d Cameron County Health Authority Dr. James Castillo said. \u201cIt is fatal in a lot of cases if it’s causing a bloodstream infection, or it’s become invasive inside the abdomen or body. A very good percentage of patients won’t survive that infection.”<\/p>\n
The fungus can live on surfaces year-round. It’s been found on hospital equipment, bed rails and can even live on your skin.<\/p>\n
It spreads by direct contact and can be extremely difficult to treat.<\/p>\n
Testing can take a few days and is done through blood cultures or skin swabs.<\/p>\n
Once a hospital confirms a positive case, the patient is isolated. Surfaces will need to be disinfected regularly and visitors and staff are required to wear gowns and gloves.<\/p>\n
Symptoms to look out for include:<\/p>\n
– redness or rash
– itching or irritation
– swelling or tenderness
– pus or drainage near wounds or medical devices
– fever and chills that don’t improve with antibiotics
– weakness or fatigue<\/p>\n
If you’re visiting a hospital, health experts say avoid direct contact with patients and wash your hands.<\/p>\n
Watch the video above for the full story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health officials across the Rio Grande Valley said they are keeping an eye on the rising cases of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1511,101619,13897,37165,97,85262,101620,101622,101621,5599,1527,101618],"class_list":["post-169212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cameron-county","tag-candida-auris","tag-cdc","tag-fungal-infection","tag-health","tag-hidalgo-county","tag-hospital-safety","tag-multidrug-resistant-fungus","tag-nursing-home-risk","tag-public-health","tag-rgv","tag-rio-grande-valley-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}