Kind: captions
Language: en
[Music]
cases of a deadly fungal infection are
increasing and this might be caused by
climate change
that may sound like the plot of The Last
of Us but fortunately this fungus called
Candida Oris is not going to hijack your
body and turn you into a zombie
it is unusual though until now human
bodies have been too warm for most fungi
to grow and reproduce but experts think
the fungi have evolved and are becoming
more of a threat the functioning the
environments are being exposed to
climate change and as those fungi begin
to adapt to higher temperatures
we're going to lose the protection cases
of candida Oris have been reported in
over 28 States and are rapidly
increasing year over year
where there was a 44 increase in 2019
there was a 95 increase in 2021. that's
what makes it concerning the fungus can
lead to severe infection and can infect
any body part including the blood
it can survive on the skin and shed into
the environment and contaminate surfaces
this increase didn't just happen in
areas where they've had sewers but it
also occurred in areas that previously
didn't have any transmission or areas
that had not had any prior cases it's
not just climate change fungi are
adapting to and an Oris is just one of
many organisms that's displaying
increasing antimicrobial resistance
antimicrobial resistance is when
organisms like bacteria and fungi build
a tolerance to drugs that in the
previous years could have worked as
treatment mutations develop in their
genetic makeup that make it so the drugs
no longer work candida Oris is
challenging to treat because it's
resistant to one of the three common
anti-fungal treatments one class of
drugs called echinocandins has been the
most effective in treating the fungus
although not in every case and a small
percentage of candida Oris samples have
been found to be resistant to that too
we have not seen a lot of resistance to
a kind of candidates yet so it's
considered the first line treatment for
infections but we are seeing more cases
that have a kind of Canadian resistance
or resistance to all three main classes
candida Oris is so far mostly contained
to Health Care settings in elderly
patients people with weakened immune
systems and patients that require
invasive medical devices like catheters
and breathing tubes this is really not a
problem for the general public this is
really a problem for people who are in
the hospital for long periods of time in
and out of the hospital very sick often
in the ICU with devices but could this
spread outside of healthcare facilities
I think the concern when I emphasize
that it's not happening today is whether
this kind of in infection can spill out
into the community I don't know if
that's going to happen but the organism
is changing rapidly and if that was to
happen then we would have a much bigger
problem than we have today we don't want
people to think that spread is
inevitable and you know be hopeless we
want Health Care Providers and Health
Care Facilities to stay motivated and
realize that there's a lot that can be
done to prevent spread
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