Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/the-strange-and-curious-case-of-the-deadly-superbug-yeast/
The Strange and Curious Case of the Deadly Superbug Yeast
Author: Maryn MckennaMaryn Mckenna
07.13.18 07:00 am
A pathogen that resists almost all of the drugs developed to treat or kill it is moving rapidly across the world, and public health experts are stymied how to stop it.
By now, that?s a familiar scenario, the central narrative in the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But this particular pathogen isn?t a bacterium. It?s a yeast, a new variety of an organism so common that it?s used as one of the basic tools of lab science, transformed into an infection so disturbing that one lead researcher called it ?more infectious than Ebola? at an international conference last week.
The name of the yeast is Candida auris. It?s been on the radar of epidemiologists only since 2009, but it?s grown into a potent microbial threat, found in 27 countries thus far. Science can?t yet say where it came from or how to control its spread, and hospitals are being forced back into old hygiene practices?putting patients into isolation, swabbing rooms with bleach?to try to control it.
To a medical system that?s been dealing with worsening antibiotic resistance for decades, this chronology feels somewhat familiar: just another, potentially tougher battle to face. But the struggle to keep this resistant yeast from surging is a warning sign that relying on standard responses won't work. As the foes continue to evolve, medicine needs both new tech, and surprisingly old techniques, to fight its microbial wars...
The Strange and Curious Case of the Deadly Superbug Yeast
Author: Maryn MckennaMaryn Mckenna
07.13.18 07:00 am
A pathogen that resists almost all of the drugs developed to treat or kill it is moving rapidly across the world, and public health experts are stymied how to stop it.
By now, that?s a familiar scenario, the central narrative in the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But this particular pathogen isn?t a bacterium. It?s a yeast, a new variety of an organism so common that it?s used as one of the basic tools of lab science, transformed into an infection so disturbing that one lead researcher called it ?more infectious than Ebola? at an international conference last week.
The name of the yeast is Candida auris. It?s been on the radar of epidemiologists only since 2009, but it?s grown into a potent microbial threat, found in 27 countries thus far. Science can?t yet say where it came from or how to control its spread, and hospitals are being forced back into old hygiene practices?putting patients into isolation, swabbing rooms with bleach?to try to control it.
To a medical system that?s been dealing with worsening antibiotic resistance for decades, this chronology feels somewhat familiar: just another, potentially tougher battle to face. But the struggle to keep this resistant yeast from surging is a warning sign that relying on standard responses won't work. As the foes continue to evolve, medicine needs both new tech, and surprisingly old techniques, to fight its microbial wars...