Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

7 INFECTION CONTROL 'It's going to get worse': Experts warn of rising fungal infections By Erica Carbajal F ungal infections are on the rise — in part due to more people with compromised immune systems and deadly pathogens adapting to warmer temperatures — and physicians need to be ready, experts told e Wall Street Journal in a June 22 report. "It's going to get worse," Tom Chiller, MD, head of CDC's fungal diseases branch, told the news outlet. In many cases, fungi aren't being considered as the culprit of recurring symptoms until it's too late for treatments to be effective. When antibiotics don't work the first time or there's confusion over what's causing symptoms, fungi should be considered right away, specialists told the Journal. Fungal pathogens becoming more resistant to standard treatments is another key concern. Part of the challenge is the lack of training physicians receive in medical school around identifying and treating fungal infections, experts said. Typically, only a few hours of curriculum are dedicated to the topic. "Most fungal diseases are taught in medical school as being rare or unusual or some even regional, but we see these on a daily basis," George ompson, MD, infectious disease specialist at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif., told the Journal. Four more notes that illustrate the threat posed by fungi: • Between 2020 and 2021, at least 2,800 people in the U.S. died from fungal infections related to COVID-19, which is a significant risk factor for fungal infections. • Clinical cases of Candida auris grew 95 percent from 2016 to 2021. Health agencies consider C. auris among the pathogens that pose the greatest threat to public health. e multidrug- resistant pathogen carries a 30 percent to 60 percent death rate. • Between 250,000 and 500,000 Americans are infected with the mold Histoplasma each year. • Health officials continue to monitor a fungal meningitis outbreak tied to cosmetic procedures performed at two clinics in Mexico between Jan. 1 and May 13. Among U.S. residents, there have been nine confirmed cases and six deaths tied to the outbreak so far, and more than 170 people who may be at risk. n AI could end the war on antibiotic-resistant bacteria By Mariah Taylor C ambridge, Mass.-based MIT and Ontario, Canada-based McMaster University researchers have found a new antibiotic treatment that can kill a common bacteria in hospital infections thanks to machine learning. The study, published May 25 in Nature Chemical Biology, used machine learning to identify which chemicals could inhibit the growth of Acinetobacter baumannii, a common hospital bacterium. After analyzing 6,680 compounds in two hours, the algorithm identified a few hundred options. Researchers chose 240 to test in the lab, which yielded nine antibiotics. One compound, originally explored as a potential diabetes drug, was effective in killing A. baumannii but had no effect on other species of bacteria — a desirable attribute. In mice studies, researchers showed the drug, which they named abaucin, treated wound infections caused by A. baumannii, according to a May 25 MIT news release. In lab tests, it also worked against a variety of drug-resistant A. baumannii strains isolated from human patients. "This finding further supports the premise that AI can significantly accelerate and expand our search for novel antibiotics," James Collins, PhD, professor of medical engineering and science in MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and department of biological engineering, said in the release. "I'm excited that this work shows that we can use AI to help combat problematic pathogens such as A. baumannii." n 70% of people feel US healthcare system fails to meet their needs: Report By Erica Carbajal A survey of more than 2,500 U.S. adults found more than 70 percent feel the nation's healthcare system fails to meet their needs in some way, Time reported May 16. Overall, 27 percent of people surveyed said the U.S. medical system does meet all of their needs. The Harris Poll was conducted from February to March, and the data was shared exclusively with Time. Four more takeaways: 1. When asked how they would grade the nation's healthcare system, 34 percent of people said "C," 18 percent said a "D" and 8 percent said "F." 2. Affordability was the most commonly selected barrier to accessing healthcare, followed by a focus on profit and access to insurance. 3. Of those who said the healthcare system is not meeting their personal needs, long wait times were the top selected response, followed by high costs and insurance not covering enough services. 4. Overall, 44 percent of people said they skipped or delayed needed care in the past two years. n

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