Candida auris, an emerging strain of multidrug-resistant fungus, has been cropping up in hospitals across the globe, including those in the U.S. Researchers presented new findings on the deadly fungus at the CDC's 66th Annual Epidemic Intelligence Services Conference this week.
Here are seven things to know from the new study.
1. Researchers traveled to Colombia to investigate cases of C. auris transmission at four hospitals in three cities.
2. Of the 40 confirmed cases (of which nearly half were infants), in-hospital mortality was 56 percent.
3. All affected patients had a central venous catheter.
4. Two-thirds of affected patients had recent surgery.
5. Half of affected patients had been fed intravenously.
6. Researchers sampled patients, healthcare workers and hospital surfaces, and found C. auris on two nurses' hands.
7. "C. auris was found on patient and healthcare worker skin and on hospital surfaces, suggesting that assiduous infection control practices are needed to limit the spread of this emerging pathogen," the study's abstract concludes.