Clinical cases of Candida auris, an emerging fungus considered an urgent threat, nearly doubled in 2021, according to new data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There was also a tripling of the number of cases resistant to echinocandins, the first-line treatment for Candida auris infections.
The research, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, evaluated cases of Candida auris reported to the CDC from 2016 – the year in which cases were first reported in the US – to 2021. The study authors found that clinical cases increased each year, rising from 53 in 2016 to 330 in 2018 and then skyrocketing from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021.
Cases of Candida auris also expanded geographically. . Although it was initially confined mostly to the New York City and Chicago areas, Candida auris is now present in more than half of US states. Between 2019 and 2021, 17 states identified their first cases.