If you look around you, the threat of a fungus outbreak seems to be everywhere. No, I’m not talking about looking around your home or your back yard. I’m talking about looking around the internet.
The world wide web is buzzing about fungus.
In Michigan, there is a fungal disease outbreak among workers at an Upper Peninsula paper mill. Reports say that there are 35 confirmed cases [1] of an atypical pneumonia infection called Blastomycosis.
All across North America, bats are dying [2] from a deadly fungal disease, killing millions of them as they hibernate.
And according to the CDC, there is a microscopic yeast strain Candida auras (C auras) detected [3] in more than 50% of the states in the country, causing them to issue a warning about the fungus. The CDC says that this hospital infection has tripled in recent years and has grown resistant to multiple drugs.
Most of the transmission of the fungus occurs in healthcare facilities and long-term care facilities. The CDC says that the infection will kill up to 60% of those infected and the symptoms are often masked by other illnesses and conditions of people who are already in the hospital.
Michigan has 35 cases of C auras. The hotspots are California with 813 cases, Florida with 683 cases, Illinois with 1044 cases and NY with 1325 cases. The CDC doesn’t keep track of how many people have died from C auris specifically but their data shows fungal infections have caused 7,000 deaths in 2021 in the US and 1.5 million worldwide.
Understandably, the hardest hit states are the ones with the most hospitals. And yes, there IS a vaccine [4] being developed for Candida auras. No joke.