'Superbug' fungus spread in two cities, health officials say

U.S. health officials say they now have evidence that an untreatable “superbug” fungus has spread in two hospitals and a nursing home

NEW YORK -- U.S. health officials said Thursday they now have evidence of an untreatable fungus spreading in two hospitals and a nursing home. The “superbug” outbreaks were reported in a Washington, D.C, nursing home and at two Dallas-area hospitals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. A handful of the patients had invasive fungal infections that were impervious to all three major classes of medications. “This is really the first time we've started seeing clustering of resistance" in which patients seemed to be getting the infections from each other, said the CDC's Dr. Meghan Lyman. The fungus, Candida auris, is a harmful form of yeast that is considered dangerous to hospital and nursing home patients with serious medical problems. It is most deadly when it enters the bloodstream, heart or brain. Outbreaks in health care facilities have been spurred when the fungus spread through patient contact or on contaminated surfaces.