A fungal infection making the rounds and healthcare facilities nationwide and here in the Lone Star State, although it's not a new infection, is proving to be deadly, the KV defenders found. The main concern is that it's almost untreatable and some strains are resistant to antifungal treatments. K Views Ford Sanders joins us in the studio now with what healthcare professionals are doing to help educate and protect the public. Ford. Waita, Brian this fungus is spreading in healthcare facilities fast. I spoke with state and local health officials and longterm care facility advocates about what this means for patients. It might seem like a scene out of the hit show. The Last of Us. I think really impressive was the fact that I didn't turn into a monster. However, despite what many on social media have been comparing it to, it's not going to turn you into a zombie. It's called Candida Oris, a fungal infection that was first seen in the US in 2013 and in Texas in 2017. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, DSHS Candida Oris can grow on the skin or in mucus membranes, and so it can be passed from person to person and just live on those surfaces until there's a chance for it to get inside the body, like into the bloodstream. Doctor Jennifer Shuford, the Commissioner for the DSHS, says the problem with this infection is its resistance to treatment. Some of these Candida oris cases are are resistant to all the different classes of antifungals that we have. You can see the infection in this Petri dish, doctor Shuford says. It grows in the mucous membranes or on one skin and can last on surfaces for weeks at a time. Unless it's cleaned well after somebody who has Candida oris is in that room, it can transfer to somebody else or medical equipment can transfer it from patient to patient in these healthcare facilities. The date of the state pools is provisional. So it's everchanging as health departments continue to report and investigate exposures they are seeing. Last year, the state of Texas had 597 cases of Candida Oris reported. So far this year, 132 cases in Texas compared these numbers to a week prior. When we asked the state for the same numbers, Texas had only seen 62 cases reported for the year from data that had been sent in. It's important to remember this doesn't mean infection has doubled in just a week, but health departments have sent in new batches of cases they've investigated, and I'm glad to say we haven't had any. In Travis County, Betsy Kirkpatrick is a registered nurse with the Austin Public Health Disease Surveillance Department. She says recent changes in reporting requirements are making the numbers more prevalent. It was made nationally reportable in the US in 2018 and it became a notifiable condition in Texas in 2021. And these cases tend to pop up more an acute and longterm healthcare facilities. And what we're seeing is a lot of these patients have been transferred from one of these facilities to another, so who is mainly at risk of infection. Patients that have other comorbidities and also invasive medical devices are going to be more at risk for contracting this Organism. That includes the elderly. Why? Both Dr. Shuford and Kirkpatrick say nursing homes are seeing Candida arra's cases because elderly patients often frequent health care settings, bringing the infection back with them. Does the facility look and smell clean? Are there sanitizing stations that are set up in full around the facility? It's exactly why Alexis Schumann, the deputy state longterm Care Ombudsman with Health and Human Services, says proper hygiene practices are so crucial. It's her job to help resolve health care disputes. So we are there to definitely work with the facilities and bring attention, and also to help residents and their families understand their rights and what to look for in facilities. But with staffing shortages plaguing the nation, she says sometimes these cleanliness practices slip through the cracks. Imagine if if staffing is insufficient, then staffing are rushing. They're not doing those basic things, washing their hands, disinfecting surfaces. And with an infection like this, the Texas DSHS says, invasive infections of Candida Rs can carry a mortality rate of 30 to 60%. Patients who get diagnosed with an invasive CRS infection. And that would be mean like a bloodstream infection, for instance. That one in three patients will die within a month. However, experts say not everyone should worry about Candida oris. People who are otherwise healthy really don't get these invasive infections that we're worried about with Candida oris. So no, even though this infection is serious, she's so much as twitches and should be treated with care, it's not exactly what you're seeing on the big screens from Hollywood. And Candida Rs is mainly spread from touch and close contact, so doctors say we're less likely to see a major outbreak like the one we saw with kovat in the studio. For the KB defenders, I'm Ford Sanders.
