Tag: spreading
A fungus is spreading in hospitals at an ‘alarming rate.’ What to know.
![spores of the Candida auris fungus](https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/articles/052VGXEjKjvU9qOJPGyCDCr/hero-image.jpg)
It’s not a fungus apocalypse. But it’s a serious, growing problem.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced this week that the fungus Candida auris (C. auris) “spread at an alarming rate in U.S. healthcare facilities” during 2020-2021. This fungus is particularly problematic because it’s a strain that has emerged in recent years, can be resistant to some, or all, antifungal drugs, and has caused outbreaks in hospitals, Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an M.D., fungal infection expert, and professor of infectious diseases at UTHealth Houston, recently told Mashable.
The CDC is taking the spread, which can cause severe and fatal blood infections, seriously.
“The rapid rise and geographic spread of cases is concerning and emphasizes the need for continued surveillance, expanded lab capacity, quicker diagnostic tests, and adherence to proven infection prevention and control,” CDC epidemiologist Dr. Meghan Lyman, lead author of the new research, said in a statement.
The research, entitled, “Worsening Spread of Candida auris in the United States, 2019 to 2021,” is published in the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
How worried should you be about Candida auris?
The fungus Candida auris, which is a yeast, infects people who are quite ill and have compromised immune systems.
“To experience a fungal infection, there has to be something wrong with your immune system,” Dr. Ostrosky, who is also chief of epidemiology at the academic hospital Memorial Hermann, explained. This includes people who have had organ transplants or other major, life-saving surgeries, as well as those undergoing cancer treatments, he said.
“In general, C. auris is not a threat to healthy people.”
People in hospitals who are unwell are particularly susceptible to Candia auris. “People who are very sick, have invasive medical devices, or have long or frequent stays in healthcare facilities are at increased risk for acquiring C. auris,” the CDC said.
Fortunately, like with most fungal spores, healthy people are not the group being infected or at risk. “In general, C. auris is not a threat to healthy people,” the agency noted. That’s because our advanced, healthy immune systems constantly combat fungal spores, and keep such foreign fungi microbes at bay. (For example, we inhale fungal spores every time we go outside.) “Humans are really, really good at staving off fungal infections,” Vincent Bruno, a scientist at the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who researches fungal diseases, told Mashable this year.
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But for those infected with Candia auris, the CDC is raising the alarm because it’s often resistant to multiple antifungal drugs that doctors use to treat Candida infections. Candida auris is a newly emerged strain of the fungus Candida, which already causes some 25,000 infections annually. Some 30 to 60 percent of people infected with C. auris have died, the CDC said. “However, many of these people had other serious illnesses that also increased their risk of death,” the agency noted.
How much is Candida auris spreading?
Since 2016, the CDC has been increasingly concerned about Candida auris. That’s when the health agency received reports that the fungus was resistant to medicines in other parts of the world.
“It seemed hard to believe,” the CDC wrote. “CDC fungal experts had never received a report describing a Candida infection resistant to all antifungal medications, let alone Candida that spreads easily between patients.”
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Reported cases, though overall low in numbers, have been rising significantly since 2015. Cases increased 318 percent in 2018, compared to the previous few years, resulting in a total of 323 clinical cases.
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Crucially, Candida auris cases have only increased each year since 2016. “Nationwide, clinical cases rose from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021,” the CDC just concluded.
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Case counts again increased in 2022, the agency noted.
Counts of reported Candida auris cases in the U.S. in 2022.
Credit: CDC
A number of factors may contribute to these rising numbers, the agency notes. This includes poor infection control, more screening to detect the infection (a good thing), and increased fungal spread during a time of great strain on the healthcare system during peaks of the COVID pandemic hospitalizations.
To limit the spread, the CDC is sounding the alarm to aid healthcare facilities in identifying the infectious fungus, and how to contain the microbe in places like hospitals and nursing homes.
Harry and Meghan accuse Clarkson of spreading ‘hate rhetoric’ as they reject new apology
The COVID XBB.1.5 subvariant is spreading. Here’s what we know.
![An illustration of the SARS CoV-2 virus mutating](https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/articles/03K6ejRLksgsHD9qnXCTTqh/hero-image.jpg)
That old familiar dread is back: New COVID variant, new worries.
This time, the World Health Organization is raising concern over COVID subvariant XBB.1.5, which has seen an increase in the United States of late. ABC News reports hospitalizations are rising in the Northeast U.S., with the subvariant making up most of those.
Should you be anxious over the latest subvariant? And why are some people calling it Kraken? Here’s what to know right now:
What’s the difference with subvariant XBB.1.5?
According to CNBC, the COVID technical lead for the WHO, Maria Van Kerkhove, said officials are worried about how quickly XBB.1.5 is spreading, especially in the Northeast. “It is the most transmissible subvariant that has been detected yet,” she said in a press conference.
Fortune adds that the subvariant raised alarm bells at the end of 2022 when the number of XBB.1.5 cases rose from 1% of all cases at the beginning of December to 41% after three weeks.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms appear to be close to those of previous versions of the Omicron variant that were prevalent last winter – which means more cold-like symptoms, like runny nose, sore throat and congestion. Fortune reports the reason is that it’s basically descended from last year’s Omicron, which also explains why symptoms seen early on in the pandemic, like loss of taste or smell, aren’t occurring as often here.
USA TODAY adds the symptoms can range into shortness of breath and low oxygen, and medical attention is warranted for those.
How do keep from catching this subvariant?
It’s starting to sound like an old saw, but keeping up to date with your vaccine and boosters is the best prevention, according to the Mayo Clinic among others.
In addition, wearing a well-fitted mask and avoiding close indoor spaces can reduce the risk of infection.
Can I catch COVID again after having it once?
Though you’ll have some protection from COVID after catching it, that doesn’t mean you’ll be immune to it forever. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reinfections of COVID do happen.
What do I do if I test positive?
If you test positive for COVID, medical officials, including the CDC, say you should isolate for at least 5 days if you are experiencing symptoms, and not end your isolation until 24 hours after your symptoms abate. If you are not experiencing symptoms, you should isolate for 5 days, and wear a mask for 10 days, in order to keep those who are at high risk of getting sick from catching the virus.
Reaching out to a medical professional (by phone, text, etc.) is also recommended if you have symptoms, in case medicines like Paxlovid need to be considered.
Why “Kraken” though?
Some, especially in the Twitterverse, have taken to calling XBB.1.5 the “Kraken” subvariant. The name comes from biology professor T. Ryan Gregory of the University of Guelph in Canada, according to Fortune.
Gregory wanted to give this subvariant a name with more oomph than XBB.1.5 or even Omicron to better communicate info to the public, and chose the name of a sea monster from norse mythology. And apparently, he has other mythological creatures, like Chiron and Basilisk.
Whatever the reason, it has taken off on social media with the #Kraken hashtag.
America’s Billion-Dollar Tree Problem Is Spreading
FTX Contagion Is Spreading To the Solana Ecosystem
FTX and Alameda Trading are in trouble. If they hold large amounts of SOL, they are very likely to exit those positions, which will tank SOL price. CoinDesk reported on Nov. 2 that Alameda had $292 million in SOL and $863 million in locked SOL (on the Solana blockchain, large holders can earn more by backing the blockchain’s validators by committing not to sell — or locking — for a certain period of time). “People are dumping already — self-fulfilling prophecy,” Economics Design’s Lisa Jy Tan told Axios over Twitter DM. Tomorrow, the entities verifying the Solana blockchain have already publicly indicated their intention to unlock about a billion dollars worth of SOL (at current prices), about 17% of its market cap. It’s reasonable to expect they might intend to sell.
Solana’s fall has put stress on one of its leading decentralized finance applications, Solend, a money market that works much like Ethereum’s Compound. Solend is gradually unwinding a single, almost $30 million USDC (stablecoin) loan, collateralized by SOL, which is falling fast while the protocol tries to sell. Much like SOL’s price, the total value locked (TVL) in various DeFi projects on Solana has fallen much further in the last day than on other smart contract blockchains, according to DefiLlama. Solana TVL is down 45% over the last day, to $470 million, as of Wednesday afternoon, New York time.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Hackers are spreading malware through YouTube channels promoting game cheats
![Hackers are spreading malware through YouTube channels promoting game cheats](https://static.techspot.com/images2/news/ts3_thumbs/2022/09/2022-09-16-ts3_thumbs-783.jpg)
A new report from Kaspersky describes a malware campaign targeting gamers through YouTube. The malware can steal various kinds of credentials from a victim’s system, then use them to trick more users. In March 2020, Kaspersky discovered a trojan that bundles together multiple malicious programs that hackers used to spread…