A projection of the C. Auris fungus on a microscope slide.
CreditMelissa Golden for The New York Times
Cases of the drug-resistant fungus Candida auris are now climbing at an “alarming” rate in health care facilities around the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned after reports of infected patients nearly doubled in 2021. Now, only a weeks later the CDC’s language is getting more desperate saying the infection “is tearing through U.S. hospitals and other healthcare facilities at an “alarming rate.”
Fungal infections can be life-threatening to those most at risk in hospital settings, including patients who are very sick, have invasive medical devices, or have long or frequent stays in healthcare facilities.
For several years after the first American cases were reported in 2016, only a few dozen Candida auris patients were reported to the CDC annually. But cases have begun to accelerate in recent years, according to the new CDC data published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. By 2021, the annual tally of cases had increased 95%, from 756 in 2020 to 1,471 in 2021. Preliminary figures count at least another 2,377 cases for 2022. Docconcerned by the number of infections resistant to echinocandins, the antifungal medication recommended for treatment, which tripled compared with the previous two years.
Nearly all of the samples tested of Candida auris are already resistant to at least one class of antifungal drug. One in three patients with invasive infections dies. Even in patients who survive invasive infections, some can remain “colonized” with Candida auris for years after they were treated.
The CDC is rightly concerned about C. Auris for three main reasons:
- It is often multidrug-resistant, meaning that it is resistant to multiple antifungal drugs commonly used to treat Candida Some strains are resistant to all three available classes of antifungals.
- It is difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods, and it can be misidentified in labs without specific technology. Misidentification may lead to inappropriate management.
- It has caused outbreaks in health-care settings. For this reason, it is important to quickly identify Aurisin a hospitalized patient so that health-care facilities can take special precautions to stop its spread.
Antifungal medicines commonly used to treat other fungal infections often don’t work on C. Auris. Doctors and medical organizations like the CDC would rather let patients with C. Auris die than promote natural medicines as the best medical solution for these infections.
Candida A
When fungal colonization and mycotoxin contamination is maximal
one finds cancer growing and metastasizing at a maximal rate.
The over-prescription of antimicrobial drugs has laid the groundwork for this relatively new germ that preys on people with weakened immune systems, according to the New York Times. According to the CDC, Candida Auris kills almost half of all patients who contract it within 90 days – as it’s impervious to most major antifungal medications. First described in 2009 after a 70-year-old Japanese woman showed up at a Tokyo hospital with C. Auris in her ear canal, the aggressive yeast infection has spread across Asia and Europe – arriving in the US by 2016.
Candida species are by far the predominant cause of fungal sepsis, accounting for about 5% of all sepsis cases. Candida accounts for 70–90% of all invasive fungal infections, and Aspergillus accounts for 10–20%. Candida is commonly found in healthy amounts in the throat, gut, and vagina, but Candida yeasts can cause an infection when they grow out of control. People who have compromised immune systems are at the highest risk of developing fungal infections. Now it seems people who wear masks are at increased risk.
“Fungal infections cannot only be extremely contagious, but they also go hand in hand with leukemia—every oncologist knows this. And these infections are devastating once a child who has become a bone marrow transplant recipient gets a “secondary” fungal infection, his chances of living, despite all the antifungal medicines in the world, are only 20%, at best,” writes Dr. David Holland.
Valley Fever
Emily Arellano, second from left, has Valley fever and underwent treatment three days a week at San Joaquin Valley Pulmonary back in 2005. She, along with others who undergo the same treatment, sits in a room full of recliners and falls asleep during the hour-long treatment with intravenous antibiotics.
Doctors are warning this dangerous fungal illness is rapidly spreading across the country, especially affecting those living or visiting the California and Arizona areas. If you think it sounds like something from the cutting room floor of “The Last of Us” series, where a parasitic fungal infection devastates mankind, there are some very base-level similarities. Valley fever (also called coccidioidomycosis or “cocci”) is a significant cause of pneumonia, said Dr. Brad Perkins.
One cannot trust the medical press or doctors when it comes to fungus infections. In the above picture and explaining text these patients are using intravenous antibiotics but, antibiotics do not treat fungus infections. Dr. Perkins said, “If you see a physician, whether you’re hospitalized or as an outpatient, they will likely prescribe medicines that are for bacteria and won’t have any impact on this (or any) fungus.”
A yeast infection is a fungal infection. Many yeast infections surface as vaginal infections, also known as vaginal candidiasis, and can cause a range of symptoms including discharge and irritation. Stinging sensations when urinating are fairly common too. Meanwhile, a complicated infection is when four or more episodes are experienced within the space of 12 months.
A big misconception is the belief that fungal infections are rare. Another misconception is fungal infections are like every other severe infection. However, they are harder to manage, harder to eradicate, and more frequent than most people including doctors realize.
Fungus and Covid
Doctors at a medical facility in Delhi have reported multiple cases of a deadly fungal infection in patients, which they claim was triggered by Covid-19. The fungal infection, called mucormycosis, has caused many of the patients to lose their eyesight. Physicians at the Sir Ganga Ram hospital in Delhi have diagnosed mucormycosis in over 12 patients. It can lead to loss of eyesight, affect the nose and jawbone, and lead to 50% mortality when it involves the brain in about fifteen days.
Last July, a team of researchers has for the first time discovered hybrid fungus involved in lung infections and are investigating the role of fungi in Covid-19. Several Covid-19 patients have died owing to concomitant infection by Aspergillus.
“In about 90 percent of cases, infection by Aspergillus is caused by A. fumigatus, but in some human genetic diseases, A. nidulans is a more frequent cause. “To our surprise, six out ten samples contained a fungus that had never before been found to infect people,” said Gustavo Henrique Goldman. The fungus gains significant advantages from being a hybrid.
Fungus, Tuberculosis and Cancer
Over one million people worldwide are misdiagnosed with tuberculosis when in reality they have an incurable disease with a similar outlook to many cancers, says a report published in 2011 in the Bulletin of the WHO. The condition called “chronic pulmonary aspergillosis” (CPA) is a fungal infection, not a bacterial infection. Is this incurable, totally drug-resistant TB infection fungal or bacterial? It looks very much like, or is identical to, TB when doctors look at it on a chest X-ray, and it has very similar symptoms initially. Doctors mistake it for TB and prescribe antibiotics as standard practice.
Dr. Luke Curtis is reporting on research that deals with 27 lung “cancer” patients who were later diagnosed with lung “fungus” instead of lung cancer. “Fungal infection can present with clinical and radiological features that are indistinguishable from thoracic malignancy, such as lung nodules or masses.” Doctors who diagnose lung cancer are unaware of the fact that cancer mimics fungal infections. Over one million people worldwide are misdiagnosed with tuberculosis when in reality they have an incurable disease with a similar outlook to many cancers, says a recent report published in 2011 in the Bulletin of the WHO.
The disease called “chronic pulmonary aspergillosis” (CPA) is a fungal infection not a bacterial infection. It looks very much like, or identical to TB when doctors look at it on a chest X-ray. Fungal infections kill at least 1,350,000 patients with, cancer, TB, asthma, or following AIDS; as well as causing untold misery and blindness to tens of millions more worldwide. Yet, like a Trojan horse its symptoms are mostly hidden, and occur as a consequence of other health problems.
Fungal disease is like the Trojan horse that threatens the world as deaths reach approximately 150 people per hour. Doctors need to wake up to the plight of millions people worldwide who suffer and die every year from fungal disease. Fungal disease is worldwide catastrophe that is growing year on year and now with this new anti-fungal resistant strain more deaths can be anticipated.
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