U.S. health officials are warning clinicians across the country to be on the lookout for an emerging, highly fatal form of drug-resistant yeast that so far has killed two-thirds of those who’ve become infected.Officials warn that the yeast doesn’t respond to common antifungal drugs and is difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods.
Researchers say that drug-resistant fungi have arisen largely as a result of the use of fungicides on crops. Bacterial resistance is usually attributed to the use of antibiotics on farms and their overuse by doctors.
Scientists should be researching whether the widespread spraying of herbicides and pesticides contributes to antibiotic bacterial resistance as well.
Very little is currently known about C. auras — how well it adheres to the skin, how it colonizes the gut, where it comes from in the environment, etc. This unfamiliarity and uncertainty are making it especially difficult for physicians to identify.
While antibiotics are ineffective against this new pathogenic yeast, bacterial probiotics may offer some protection by maintaining the health and diversity of the gut microbiota. Yeast in the gut is typically kept in check by other organisms in the gut microbiota, but when that balance is thrown off by a course of antibiotics or other causes, bad yeast can get out of control and cause serious health issues. Saccharomyces boulardii, a non-colonizing yeast, and S. cerevisiae (brewer’s yeast) may help in warding off warding off harmful fungi and pathogenic yeasts, especially in patients who have recently taken antibiotics, which tend to kill off bacteria (but not yeast), thereby allowing the yeast population to explode.
