The Rise of Fungal Infections

 

By Meghan Farrell

When people think about deadly infections, they usually think of bacteria or viruses, or maybe a pandemic-style flu. This often excludes fungi because fungi have a difficult time growing at human body temperature, so we do not often see many systemic infections caused by fungi. However, since 2016, fungi have been quietly making a move, and we don’t have many weapons to stop them. One of the biggest threats right now is Candida auris, a small yeast that has been popping up in hospitals around the world. And the worst part is that it is getting harder and harder to kill.

Discovered in Japan in 2009, C. auris has since spread to dozens of countries, including the U.S. It’s not your typical fungal infection. C. auris loves hospital settings, clinging to surfaces, spreading between patients, and resisting standard cleaning methods. Unlike common yeast infections, it doesn’t just stay on the skin. It can invade the bloodstream, leading to severe infections, like sepsis, that can be deadly, especially for people with weakened immune systems. It also causes wound and ear infections. In 2023, there was a total of 4,514 cases here in the U.S., with 89 confirmed already this year. The CDC has officially labeled C. auris as a "global threat."

So why is this happening now? The main theory is climate change. As global temperatures rise, fungi that used to thrive in cooler environments are adapting to warmer ones. This includes human body temperature, which means more fungi are now capable of infecting humans when they previously couldn’t. Another factor is modern healthcare due to more medical procedures, longer hospital stays, and increased use of antibiotics (which kill bacteria but leave fungi untouched). This creates the perfect conditions for C. auris to spread.

The real problem is not necessarily the rise in this fungal infection, but instead that we are lacking treatment for it. We don’t have many antifungal drugs, and C. auris is resistant to most of them (- azoles, amphotericin B, polyenes). The main class of drugs that still works is called echinocandins, but there are already signs that C. auris is evolving resistance to them too. If that happens, we’re looking at a serious crisis because there’s basically no backup plan. New antifungal drugs take years to develop, and the ones we do have can be toxic to organs like the liver and kidneys, making treatment even trickier. On top of that, diagnosing fungal infections isn’t easy. Many hospitals don’t have the right tests, so infections are often caught late after the fungus has already spread. And since C. auris can survive on surfaces for weeks, it just keeps coming back, even after aggressive cleaning.

If we don’t get ahead of this, drug-resistant fungi could become the next big public health disaster. Scientists are racing to develop new treatments, but progress is slow. In the meantime, hospitals need better infection control, and researchers need more funding to stay ahead of fungal evolution. Early detection and prevention, especially in hospitals, is key to preventing a major spread of this infection. If we don’t act fast, we could be dealing with a super-fungus that’s nearly impossible to stop.