US: Deadly Fungal “Superbug” Spreads Through Hair Follicles Across 23 States

Washington — Health officials in the United States are raising alarm over the spread of Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungal infection now reported in 23 states. Nearly 3,000 cases have been recorded this year, with more than 700 in Texas alone.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified the fungus as an “urgent antimicrobial resistance threat,” noting that some strains are resistant to most available antifungal medications. The agency says up to 60 percent of people infected have died, though most of those patients already had serious underlying health conditions, making it difficult to attribute deaths directly to the fungus. CDC data suggests it contributes to roughly 3,000 deaths annually in the US.
The infection spreads mainly in hospitals and nursing homes and can survive on surfaces for weeks, putting anyone in contact at risk. Most people who carry the fungus on their skin show no symptoms, but they can transmit it to immunocompromised individuals, for whom it can become dangerous. According to the Cleveland Clinic, symptoms include fever, chills, fatigue, low blood pressure and a rapid heartbeat.
New research has found that C. auris can hide for months in hair follicles without producing any visible symptoms, later entering the bloodstream from there. In experiments on mice, researchers found that Candida albicans, a related fungus, was quickly cleared by the immune system, while C. auris persisted by embedding itself in hair follicles. The two also triggered different immune responses: C. albicans activated an IL-17 response that helped repair skin and clear the infection, whereas C. auris triggered interferon gamma — a signal typically used to fight viruses — after altering its outer cell wall structure.
Dr. Suzanne Noble, a UCSF microbiology professor and co-senior author of the study, said researchers were surprised to find that C. auris actively turns its environment on the skin into an ideal breeding ground. There is currently no reliable method to fully clear the fungus from the skin, and doctors often rely on combinations of multiple antifungal drugs to manage infections.