When receiving care in a hospital or long-term facility, peace of mind depends on trusting that the medical environment is safe. At the same time, public health systems are constantly working behind the scenes to tackle the ongoing challenge of drug-resistant superbugs.
Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reported by ABC News, shows that 3,437 clinical cases of the fungus Candida auris (C. auris) have been identified across 27 U.S. states as of early August 2026. California accounts for the highest number with 873 cases, followed by Texas with 433 and Tennessee with 283. What makes C. auris particularly concerning is its ability to cause severe, life-threatening bloodstream infections in high-risk patients while standing up against standard antifungal medications.
On a positive note, this year’s total is actually down by about 1,000 cases compared to the 4,290 reported during the same period in 2025. Even with that dip in cases, public health officials stress that C. auris remains a significant concern in intensive care units and nursing homes. Protecting vulnerable patients ultimately comes down to understanding how the fungus behaves, recognizing who is most susceptible and maintaining strict infection control practices.
What is Candida auris?
First identified in South Korea in 1996 and officially named in Japan in 2009, Candida auris (C. auris) isn’t your average yeast. Unlike common fungal annoyances like oral thrush that remain mild and localized, this organism is a high-consequence hospital pathogen capable of causing serious, potentially fatal illness.
What makes C. auris particularly alarming to public health officials is its ability to spread rapidly through healthcare facilities and cause severe, invasive infections. According to the CDC, it poses an urgent threat of antimicrobial resistance because multiple strains are resistant to all three primary classes of antifungal medications, leaving doctors with very few treatment options when a patient falls ill.
What’s happening in your body
Candida auris can quietly hang out on a person’s skin, in their nostrils or under their armpits without causing any obvious symptoms – a stealthy state known as “asymptomatic colonization.” While it might seem harmless while resting on the surface, the real trouble starts if the body’s natural barriers are compromised.
Research published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows that C. auris can create tough communities of fungal cells (biofilms) once it enters the bloodstream or internal organs. These biofilms bind tightly to medical tubing, catheters and organ tissues, and produce a protective matrix that shields the fungus from the immune system and circulating antifungal drugs.
The organism grows in the blood (candidemia), triggering an overwhelming inflammatory response throughout the body, reducing oxygen transport to vital organs and possibly leading to septic shock.
“Fungal infections are often overlooked because they are not as common as bacterial infections,” Nathan Wiederhold, PharmD, director of the Fungus Testing Laboratory and professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT San Antonio, said. “But they can be much more difficult to diagnose and treat, and we’re seeing increasing spread and resistance.”
Causes of Candida auris infection
The most common causes of a C. auris infection are entry into the deep tissues or bloodstream of a person whose immune system or skin barrier is severely weakened.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the main drivers of infection include:
- Invasive medical lines: Having central venous catheters, urinary catheters, feeding tubes, or breathing tubes (tracheostomies) provides a direct physical pathway for the fungus to bypass skin defenses and enter internal organ systems.
- Long-term healthcare stays: Frequent or extended admissions to a high-acuity healthcare setting, including long-term acute care hospitals and skilled nursing facilities, greatly increase exposure risk.
- Prior antifungal or antibiotic use: Broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents kill off protective bacteria on the skin and in the gut, allowing resistant fungi, such as C. auris, to proliferate in the absence of competition.
How is Candida auris transmitted?
The primary modes of transmission of C. auris are direct physical contact from person to person among colonized individuals and contact with contaminated surfaces in healthcare settings.
Patients who are actively infected with C. auris, or who are colonized with the fungus (harboring it on their skin without physical symptoms), can continuously shed the fungus into the immediate environment, according to the CDC. This yeast is very hardy and can live for weeks or even months on hard, non-porous surfaces such as bedrails, doorknobs, blood pressure cuffs, mobile carts and medical equipment.
If proper hand hygiene and personal protective equipment (PPE) practices are not carefully observed, the organism can be spread from one patient to another by healthcare workers on contaminated hands or clothing. C. auris is not commonly spread or picked up by healthy people in the community or visitors to the hospital.
Health risks and complications
C. auris poses a significant health threat to medically vulnerable people. Observational studies estimate the overall mortality rate for invasive C. auris infections to be between 30% and 60%, according to NIH. But identification of the proportion of deaths that result directly from the fungus versus underlying health conditions is clinically complex because the majority of infected patients have underlying serious health conditions.
In fact, CDC analysis of 8,000 C. auris samples revealed that more than 95% were resistant to fluconazole, a first-line antifungal commonly used to treat fungal infections; 15% were resistant to amphotericin B; and 1% were resistant to echinocandins. Less than 1% were resistant to all three classes of drugs.
What to do about a potential infection
Aggressive facility-based infection control measures and appropriate medical therapy are required to manage infections caused by C. auris. In healthy people, there is no need to change their everyday habits; however, families with relatives in long-term care facilities should stay alert.
Tunde Rasheed, a B.Sc. Researcher advises Blavity Health, “When you visit a family member in a long-term care facility or hospital, wash your hands well before you go in and when you come out of the room. Ask health care workers if they have cleaned their hands and equipment before touching intravenous lines or catheters.”
Healthcare facilities with active cases use special EPA-registered hospital-grade disinfectants that can kill resistant fungal spores on environmental surfaces.
What kills Candida auris naturally?
No natural remedies, dietary supplements, essential oils or alternative therapies have been proven to clear a Candida auris infection or colonization.
However, C. auris is an aggressive fungal pathogen that invades, forms thick biofilms, and penetrates deep tissues, so natural home remedies are ineffective and can be harmful.
Standard household cleaners will not kill yeast on environmental surfaces, so you will need sporicidal disinfectants certified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use in hospitals. Most active infections require prescription intravenous antifungal medications, called echinocandins, which are the most effective class of drugs.
When to see a doctor
The risk of C. auris infection is very low for healthy people in the general public, and they should not be routinely screened. Medical evaluation is essential, however, in hospitalized or institutionalized patients who are showing signs of infection. These include high fever and shaking chills that do not respond to standard broad-spectrum antibiotics, as well as Redness, swelling, warmth, or purulent drainage around surgical wounds, catheter sites, or feeding tube entries.
Also keep a look out for sudden low blood pressure, rapid heart rate or signs of systemic sepsis in a patient with ongoing medical lines. Sepsis is a possibly deadly illness that happens whenever the body’s immune system attacks its very own organs in reaction to an infection. Septic shock can ultimately cause severe organ damage or death. Treatment with antibiotics and intravenous fluids increases the chances of survival.
Physicians need to collect samples of blood, urine, wound, or body fluid and send them to a specialized reference lab that offers advanced molecular testing. Still, these samples can be confused with other common yeast species by standard automated testing equipment in hospitals.
Bottom line
Candida auris is a serious, drug-resistant fungal yeast that can be deadly and is transmitted mainly among hospitalized, high-risk patients with invasive medical devices or weakened immune systems. It’s not a threat to healthy community members, but it is deadly to susceptible individuals (30 to 60 percent) and is resistant to commonly used antifungal drugs, such as fluconazole. The current strategy to control infection is to maintain good hygiene practices, use specialized disinfectants in hospitals and administer targeted therapies with echinocandins.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Candida auris look like on the skin?
Candida auris is invisible to the naked eye and does not produce a distinct skin rash or visible lesion when it silently colonizes the skin without causing an active infection.
Is Candida fungus an STD?
No, Candida auris is not a sexually transmitted disease; it is a hospital-acquired fungal infection that spreads through environmental surfaces and contact in clinical settings.
Citations
Kekatos M. Cases of potentially deadly fungus detected in 27 states, CDC data shows. What to know. ABC News. Published August 5, 2026. https://abcnews.com/Health/cases-potentially-deadly-fungus-detected-23-states-cdc/story?id=135384172
Kim JS, Cha H, Bahn YS. Comprehensive Overview of Candida auris: An Emerging Multidrug-Resistant Fungal Pathogen. Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology. 2024;34(7):1365-1375. doi:10.4014/jmb.2404.04040
CDC. About C. Auris.; 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/candida-auris/about/index.html
Ahmad S, Alfouzan W. Candida auris: Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Pathogenesis, Antifungal Susceptibility, and Infection Control Measures to Combat the Spread of Infections in Healthcare Facilities. Microorganisms. 2021;9(4):807. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9040807
Cleveland Clinic. Candida Auris.; 2023. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/25152-candida-auris
CDC. Preventing the Spread of C. Auris.; 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/candida-auris/prevention/index.html
Choudhury S, Kalpana Majhi, Jena P, et al. Candida auris infections in ICU patients: risk factors, outcomes, and antifungal resistance patterns. Critical Care. 2025;29(1). doi:10.1186/s13054-025-05544-y
Dall C. Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.; 2026. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/candida-auris/cdc-study-highlights-substantial-antifungal-resistance-candida-auris
