Deadly fungal infection that doctors have been fearing now reported in U.S.

[Disir]

Nearly three dozen people in the United States have been diagnosed with a deadly and highly drug-resistant fungal infection since federal health officials first warned U.S. clinicians last June to be on the lookout for the emerging pathogen that has been spreading around the world.

The fungus, a strain of a kind of yeast known as Candida auris, has been reported in a dozen countries on five continents starting in 2009, where it was first found in an ear infection in a patient in Japan. Since then, the fungus has been reported in Colombia, India, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, South Korea, Venezuela and the United Kingdom.

Unlike garden variety yeast infections, this one causes serious bloodstream infections, spreads easily from person to person in health-care settings, and survives for months on skin and for weeks on bed rails, chairs and other hospital equipment. Some strains are resistant to all three major classes of antifungal drugs. Based on information from a limited number of patients, up to 60 percent of people with these infection have died. Many of them also had other serious underlying illnesses.


Read more here: Deadly fungal infection that doctors have been fearing now reported in U.S.

Great. Well, I guess there is this years new major illness or a contender.

 

[Moonglow]

Thanks Oblama....And I have an operation scheduled on Wednesday...

 

[Disir]

Thanks Oblama....And I have an operation scheduled on Wednesday...

Not sure it's his fault.

I hope your surgery goes well.

 

[Moonglow]

Thanks Oblama....And I have an operation scheduled on Wednesday...

Not sure it's his fault.

I hope your surgery goes well.

Well,, I was so use to seeing and hearing how everything was always Oblama's fault, I can't seem to break the habit..Thanks..I hope to be back on the warpath soon..

 

[Disir]

Thanks Oblama....And I have an operation scheduled on Wednesday...

Not sure it's his fault.

I hope your surgery goes well.

Well,, I was so use to seeing and hearing how everything was always Oblama's fault, I can't seem to break the habit..Thanks..I hope to be back on the warpath soon

Who could hear that over the din of the angelic Democrats?

 

[gipper]

Thanks Oblama....And I have an operation scheduled on Wednesday...

Is it a lobotomy?

 

[waltky]

Common Baker's Yeast Can Be Used to Detect Fungal Pathogens...

Common Baker's Yeast Used to Detect Fungal Pathogens
July 06, 2017 | WASHINGTON — Yeast can be used to make beer and bread, and now - medical diagnoses. Using only baker’s yeast, filter paper and a 3-D printed holder, researchers at Columbia University designed an inexpensive, on-the-spot test to detect major fungal pathogens.

Diagnosing fungal infections, which kill 2 million people each year and cost global agriculture more than $60 billion annually, is a complex, expensive procedure; but, synthetic biology researchers found a way to replace the specialized equipment with a simple, one-component biosensor that could cost less than a penny.

Writing in the journal Science Advances, Nili Ostrov and her colleagues at Columbia University's Cornish Lab described how they genetically altered yeast so it could detect disease-causing pathogens and turn red. First, they swapped out one of the yeast’s receptors for one that recognized the pathogen Candida albicans, which can cause life-threatening infections. Then, "we engineered into it the tomato pigment for red color called lycopene, and when the yeast detects the pheromone of other organisms in its surroundings, it will turn red." The change happens in fewer than three hours.

Versatile test kit

By replacing the baker's yeast gene with similar genes from other fungal species, the researchers showed the biosensor could detect nine additional human, agricultural and food spoilage pathogens. And the dipstick test detected pathogens in soil, urine, serum and blood. It was still effective after being stored at room temperature for 38 weeks. Simplicity, however, was not the researchers’ only goal.

Co-author Miguel Jimenez said, "The idea we had was really, could we build a diagnostic device that was very, very cheap, basically the cost of just the sugar that feeds the yeast and that would be the only expensive reagent required? And we thought if it was so cheap, people outside the lab could use it all the time for continuous surveillance of pathogens." Another advantage is the yeast-based tester could be easily manufactured in developing countries, because, as Jimenez noted, "Every country can make beer!" The researchers have developed a prototype and are working to get it to places that need it.

Common Baker's Yeast Used to Detect Fungal Pathogens

 

[badger2]

Candida auris is still killed best by micafungin, produced by a Streptomyces species. Micafungin's story began in 1999 at Nagasaki, Japan:

Jun 2017 Best Candida auris Killing / Micafungin
Pharmacodynamic Optimization for Treatment of Invasive Candida auris Infection. - PubMed - NCBI
(Access to the full report tweaks at Pubmed)

Nagasaki / Non-Azole FK463
[The future of antifungal agents. Non azole antifungal agents]. - PubMed - NCBI