As authorities fight to contain it, a deadly, treatment-resistant fungus that functions similarly to cancer is spreading quickly throughout hospitals across the nation.
Candida Auris, a type of yeast that can survive on surfaces for long periods of time, was first detected in hospitals in 2016, with 52 infections reported across four states.
In the years since, cases have increased exponentially, with at least 7,000 people infected in 2025, according to tracking data by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC had already declared the fungus an ‘urgent threat’ in 2023, when 4,514 infections were detected across the country that year.
Dr Timothy Connelly, at Memorial Health in Savannah, Georgia, told WJCL in March that being infected with the disease is similar to having cancer.
‘The fungus will just keep getting bigger and bigger, obstruct certain parts of the lungs, and can cause secondary pneumonia. Eventually, it can go on to kill people,’ he said.
C. Auris poses a particularly significant threat in hospitals, where it can colonise the skin of individuals through physical contact with contaminated medical equipment.
And the fungus is resistant to many standard disinfectants and cleaning products used in hospitals, as well as antifungal drugs, making it extremely difficult to treat.
Because it is so treatment-resistant, people who contract the fungus must rely solely on their immune system to fight off the infection. Those who are already sick and have compromised immunity are at the greatest risk.
It is more likely to be lethal if the fungus enters a person’s bloodstream through wounds or medical devices, such as breathing tubes or catheters.
The CDC has estimated that 30 per cent to 60 per cent of people with a C. Auris infection have died, though most of them also had other serious conditions that raised their risk of dying.
Those who have prolonged stays in the hospital or need invasive medical devices are particularly at risk of infection, doctors say.
Warning signs include a fever and chills that persist after treatment with antibiotics for a suspected bacterial infection. There may also be redness, warmth and pus at the site of infected wounds.
A study published by Cambridge University Press in July examined patients infected with C. Auris, primarily in Nevada and Florida, and determined that more than half of them needed admission to an intensive care unit.
Additionally, the study discovered that over half needed a blood transfusion and one-third needed artificial ventilation.
The fungus has proven difficult to contain due to its medication resistance. This year, instances have been documented in more than half of the US states.
Nevada alone has reported 1,605 cases in 2025, followed closely by neighbouring California, which reported 1,524 cases.
A study published in the American Journal of Infection Control in March warned that cases at Florida’s Jackson Health System, which treats approximately 120,000 patients every year, have surged more than 2,000 per cent in half a decade.
There were just five infections diagnosed in the system in 2019, the study said, but that number quickly ballooned to 115 cases in 2023.
Overall, they discovered blood cultures were the most common source of infections, although there was a big increase from 2022 of infections in soft tissue.
Some scientists believe the rapidly growing number of cases can be at least partly attributed to climate change.
Because of our high interior temperatures, fungi typically have a hard time infecting and growing in human bodies.
However, fungi are rapidly evolving and developing heat resistance as the planet warms.
Microbiologist Arturo Casadevall, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, told the Associated Press: ‘We have tremendous protection against environmental fungi because of our temperature.
‘However, if the world is getting warmer and the fungi begin to adapt to higher temperatures as well, some … are going to reach what I call the temperature barrier.’
So, it seems that in 50 per cent of cases, this fungus was found in Florida and Nevada. Sounds more like the CDC should be looking into the hospitals in those states to find out why they’re not being cleaned properly. Both the hospitals and the medical equipment.
This is presumably another deadly pathogen brought into the US via their open borders policy. Don’t let them in, and you won’t get their diseases, and if they are going to let some in, they need a system like that of Ellis Island, where nobody gets in who’s sick or looks sick.
And they just had to get the climate change baloney in. They never seem to want to let go of this climate change.
They always blame everything on climate change. The planet heats up, it cools down, so the Earth is always going through a constant cycle of climate change, and if you go back to 1850, people burnt coal; it was the only way to keep warm back then, so if we destroyed our planet, we destroyed it long ago.
And here we are again. First, it was COVID, and now it’s fungus – nothing like a little bit of abject terror to start the New Year off.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 