CDC reports steady rise in drug-resistant Candida auris cases
A CDC report found 13,507 Candida auris cases from 2022 to 2024, with the fungus posing a growing threat in health care settings.
By Tom Brennan · Health & Medicine Correspondent
3 min read
A dangerous drug-resistant yeast continued to spread in U.S. health care settings from 2022 through 2024, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. The findings matter because Candida auris can cause severe infections in people with weakened immune systems and is hard to eliminate once it reaches hospitals or long-term care facilities.
The CDC said state and local health departments voluntarily reported 13,507 C. auris cases over the three-year period. The agency found steady, significant increases each year, with most cases reported among men older than 45 and in hospitals and other health care facilities.
C. auris was first identified in the United States in 2016, according to the CDC. Since then, more than half of states have reported cases, the agency said.
The CDC reported 6,304 new cases in 2024. CDC data cited by NBC News showed California had the most new cases that year, with 961, followed by Texas with 719; Washington, D.C., reported 55 new cases.
Why the fungus is hard to control
C. auris can live on the skin without causing symptoms, a condition scientists call colonization, according to Dr. Waleed Javaid, chief quality officer of West Virginia University Hospitals and a professor of medicine in infectious diseases. Javaid said the yeast can become part of a person’s skin ecosystem and can be difficult to remove.
Healthy people usually do not develop symptoms, according to the CDC information cited in the report. People with weakened immune systems or other illnesses face a higher risk, and infections can range from skin problems to serious bloodstream infections.
Javaid said the fungus can persist on skin and spread to surfaces or to other people, especially those with open wounds. If C. auris is found in a health care facility, he said rooms must be cleaned with hospital-grade disinfectants.
Symptoms of C. auris infection can include fever and chills, according to the report. Those symptoms can resemble bacterial infections, which can complicate diagnosis and treatment decisions.
Treatment options are narrowing
The CDC report said C. auris is consistently resistant to fluconazole, a main antifungal drug. The agency also said the fungus is becoming harder to treat with other medications.
Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told NBC News that one strong treatment option remains, but resistance to that drug is a concern because doctors have few antifungal medications available.
Casadevall said antifungal drug development is difficult because fungi are biochemically closer to humans and animals than bacteria are. That leaves fewer targets for drugs that can kill fungi without harming patients, he said.
The CDC report did not include deaths linked to C. auris. NBC News cited an earlier study that found about 30% of people infected with the fungus die.
Fungal infections are relatively uncommon in people partly because many fungi struggle to tolerate human body temperature, Casadevall said. He told NBC News that climate change may be contributing to the rise in C. auris cases because heat can pressure organisms to adapt while also stressing people.
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.