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A Chicago woman fell victim to Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus

nytimes.com

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Re: A Chicago woman fell victim to Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus

#51

Post by dredmorbius »

microcolonel wrote: post #22
Tharkun wrote: post #16

Is this becoming a serious problem? Or is this just getting more press attention suddenly? We've had outbreaks and near-hysteria of various sorts (HIV, SARS, swine flu etc). But those seem orders of magnitude easier to manage than this fungal infection. You don't need to tear down hospital rooms after an HIV patient spent time in it.

The cases are accelerating, and the information is actively being suppressed from the public (for what they see as good reasons, I guess). Something tells me that candida auris will change the way hospitals are built and maintained.

For those doubting parent post's claim, the CDC had previously been barred from disclosing which hospitals were affected by outbreaks. NYTimes on 8 April 2019:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/health/candida-auris-hosp...

Re: A Chicago woman fell victim to Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus

#52

Post by Chris_Chambers »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #31
fzeroracer wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to be remarkably disengenous and take my argument out of context, sure. But I will not stand for people recommending alternative medicine for absolutely everything. I already had to deal with a family member doing just that, forcing random concoctions of nonsense onto a family member suffering from cancer and attempting to divert them from actual treatment. Especially when they act like they're better tha…

But I will not stand for people recommending alternative medicine for absolutely everything I totally agree. The anti-vaxxers, for instance, are incredibly dangerous not just to the health of individuals, but to modern civilization. My point is that just because something is a folk remedy, or predates the invention of the scientific method, doesn't mean it's inherently without value. Rigorous scientific studies can a…

[dead]

Re: A Chicago woman fell victim to Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus

#53

Post by hospitate »

I was scrolling on Weibo the other day and came across a news story about a killer fungus sweeping across the USA. Several deaths with 60% percent chance of death, they said. Well that was certainly news to me so I googled it. Nothing. Not a single shred of information. I wrote it off as shoddy Chinese journalism.

Re: A Chicago woman fell victim to Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus

#55

Post by snakeboy »

hospitate wrote: post #53

I was scrolling on Weibo the other day and came across a news story about a killer fungus sweeping across the USA. Several deaths with 60% percent chance of death, they said. Well that was certainly news to me so I googled it. Nothing. Not a single shred of information. I wrote it off as shoddy Chinese journalism.

I don't think anyone was really reporting on it notably until a big NYT[0] article a few weeks ago.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/health/drug-resistant-can...

Re: A Chicago woman fell victim to Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus

#56

Post by dekhn »

amalcon wrote: post #42
DoreenMichele wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Antifungal resistant fungal infections are common in the Cystic Fibrosis community. I haven't participated for several years on any CF lists, but I used to be on several. I checked my old emails. There is zero mention of candida auris. This appears to be fairly new and becoming very serious, from what I gather. (Updated to say "antifungal.")

Pedant: All fungal infections are antibiotic-resistant, because antibiotics kill bacteria. Antifungal-resistant fungi have long been a problem for anyone who spends time in hospitals, though.

Antibacterials kill bacteria.antibiotics can kill a number of different living things but not viruses

Re: A Chicago woman fell victim to Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus

#57

Post by URSpider94 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #49
true_tuna wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The linked articles explicitly say that hospitals are not publicizing the infections because they want to avoid panic. Previously rare fungal infection showing up in five hospitals is a pretty significant uptick. The fact that it’s extraordinarily hard to eradicate is notable as well. One of the linked articles mentioned having to tear out ceiling tiles and flooring to get at it.

There is a difference between being reluctant to disclose information and suppressing it; the article says the former, the poster recast it as the latter.

The CDC and health department are specifically prevented from disclosing what institutions have had outbreaks. That seems like “suppression”

Re: A Chicago woman fell victim to Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus

#58

Post by scythe »

Tharkun wrote: post #16

Is this becoming a serious problem? Or is this just getting more press attention suddenly? We've had outbreaks and near-hysteria of various sorts (HIV, SARS, swine flu etc). But those seem orders of magnitude easier to manage than this fungal infection. You don't need to tear down hospital rooms after an HIV patient spent time in it.

Yes. See for example:

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0817/8/2/45

Re: A Chicago woman fell victim to Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus

#59

Post by basetop »

Tharkun wrote: post #16

Is this becoming a serious problem? Or is this just getting more press attention suddenly? We've had outbreaks and near-hysteria of various sorts (HIV, SARS, swine flu etc). But those seem orders of magnitude easier to manage than this fungal infection. You don't need to tear down hospital rooms after an HIV patient spent time in it.

Frankly, it's hard to say. The year before it, we had super gonnerhea scare. Before that the hospital super bacteria scare. Before that, it was the ebola scare. Ever since I'd started paying attention to the news, we have a medical (bacteria/virus/fungi/etc) related scare every few months so I've just learn to ignore it mostly. It seems to come in waves. Now, we seem to be in a medical scare phase with fungi, measles, etc. Invariably this scare will die down and we'll all forget it and a new scare ( asteroids, supervolcanoes, ? ) will take over. Then it'll be climate or AI or social media or maybe north korea or terrorism or whatever is in queue. I've just learned to not care. I'm numb to the incessant fearmongering.
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