Superbug may be Spreading in Hospitals Overrun with COVID-19
By Nicoletta Lanese | Live Science Staff Writer

OCTOBER 24, 2020 | As COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to surge around the world, another dangerous infection may also be sickening patients: a drug-resistant superbug called Candida auris, National Geographic reported.

(Image: © iStock)

The superbug is a yeast that can infect the ears and open wounds, and it can also enter the bloodstream to trigger severe infection throughout the body, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The yeast clings to surfaces and spreads easily in health care settings, especially among patients with catheters or other tubes that enter their bodies.

Now, early data hints that the influx of COVID-19 patients in hospitals may also be driving a surge of C. auris cases, according to the National Geographic report. Notably, the United States has already reported 1,272 cases of the fungal infection this year, according to the CDC — that’s about a 400% increase over the number of cases reported in all of 2018, the most recent year with available data. The number of cases in 2020 may be even higher than reported, given that the ongoing pandemic has disrupted surveillance systems used to track the fungus’s spread. Other kinds of fungi in the Candida genus closely resemble C. auris, so doctors can identify the yeast only by using a specialized laboratory test.