2 Collin County hospitals grapple with ‘superbug’ fungus outbreaks that have killed 4, officials say - The Dallas Morning News

Officials confirmed Friday that two Dallas-area hospitals that are grappling with outbreaks of an untreatable fungus are in Collin County and that four patients who became infected with the “superbug” at the facilities have died.

State and local officials confirmed to The Dallas Morning News that there was evidence of the “superbug” fungus, Candida auris, in two hospitals in the county.

Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said Collin County is “leading the investigation” into the fungus.

The news release confirmed that two health-care facilities in the county had seen cases of the drug-resistant variants and that four patients had died after becoming infected.

The News contacted 12 hospitals and health systems in the county to ask about the fungus.

Andy Wilson, a spokesman for Texas Health, which operates at least four health centers in the county, said “we aren’t currently granting interviews on this topic.”.

The CDC said that a cluster of 22 patients in the Dallas-area hospitals included two who were resistant to all three major classes of antifungal medications.

Van Deusen said Texas issued a health advisory on March 16 that notified health care providers of two pan-resistant infections — meaning those that are resistant to nearly all classes of anti-fungal drugs — from January and February.

“DSHS worked with Collin County Health Care Services ..5

After receiving The News’ inquiries, Collin County reported that two patients at the facilities were infected with the fungus’ pan-resistant variant, including one who died.

County officials did not specify when the cases happened but said the outbreaks happened “recently.” They said the untreatable fungus had “became reportable” in Texas on Jan.

Luis Ostrosky, a professor and the chief of infectious diseases at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston, said he was concerned to see that the fungus had been detected in Texas since there’s “so much exchange” of patients between hospitals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

He said the organism is worrisome because it’s resistant to common anti-fungals and spreads in a pattern not seen before in yeasts since it transmits within the hospitals, rather than coming from a person’s own body.