A fungus that’s resistant to drugs has been spreading around hospitals and other healthcare centers in Missouri.
Corey Lance is a pharmacist who also works as Program Chief for the Healthcare-Associated Infections/Antimicrobial Resistance (HAI/AR) Program within the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. He told Missourinet that Candida auris is tough to get rid of.
“It’s very hardy in the healthcare environment, so it likes to stick around,” he said. “Facilities really have to be on top of their environmental cleaning to make sure that they are able to get rid of it out of patient and resident rooms as well.”
There were just over 800 cases of Candida auris reported in Missouri last year.
“With that, they’ve been identified in essentially all types of healthcare facilities,” Lance said. “Your acute care hospitals, your long-term care facilities, especially nursing homes. We’ve had some associated with outpatient dialysis centers.”
Symptoms of being infected with the Candida auris fungus can begin with fever and light-headedness.
“(It) can cause bloodstream infections, can cause potentially urinary tract infections, you can have wound infections, abscesses that, you know, either under the skin,” Lance said. “It can cause a lot of different variety of infection types.”
He said that the Dept. of Health and Senior Services provides support to healthcare centers in Missouri working to rid themselves of the Candida auris fungus.
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