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Deadly Superbug Identified on Sandy Beach in Remote Tropical Archipelago
https://www.sciencealert.com ^ | 17 MARCH 2021 | RACHAEL RETTNER

Posted on 03/18/2021 11:46:50 AM PDT by Red Badger

A deadly hospital superbug has been discovered on a remote island beach, marking the first time researchers have seen this multidrug-resistant organism in the "wild".

The findings, published Tuesday (March 16) in the journal mBio, may provide clues to the origins of this superbug, Candida auris, which mysteriously popped up in hospitals around the world about a decade ago.

"It's a medical mystery, where did it come from," said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

The new findings are "a very important part of the puzzle," Casadevall told Live Science.

C. auris is a fungus that was first discovered in 2009 in a patient in Japan. It seemed to quickly spread around the world, appearing on three different continents around the same time.

The microbe can cause serious bloodstream infections, particularly in patients who require catheters, feeding tubes or breathing tubes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The infections can be difficult to treat because the microbe is often resistant to multiple antifungal drugs; and it can also linger on environmental surfaces.

"When it gets into a hospital, it's a nightmare" for infection control, Casadevall said.

In 2019, the CDC declared C. auris an "urgent threat" to public health.

Although related species have been detected in plants and aquatic environments, C. auris hasn't been found in natural environments.

Casadevall and colleagues have previously hypothesized that increased temperatures due to climate change may have caused C. auris to adapt to higher temperatures in the wild, and thus allowed the fungus to make the jump to humans, whose normal body temperature is typically too hot for most fungi to survive.

Inspired by this hypothesis, study lead author Dr. Anuradha Chowdhary, a medical mycologist at the University of Delhi, India, and colleagues analyzed samples of soil and water collected from eight sites around the Andaman Islands, a remote, tropical archipelago between India and Myanmar.

The researchers isolated C. auris from two sites: a salt marsh wetland where virtually no people ever go, and a beach with more human activity.

The C. auris isolates from the beach were all multidrug-resistant and were more closely related to strains seen in hospitals compared with the isolates found in the marsh, Chowdhary said in a statement.

One isolate found in the marsh was not drug-resistant and grew more slowly at high temperatures compared with the other isolates. This finding suggests that this isolate could be a "wilder" strain of C. auris, one that hadn't yet adapted to the high body temperatures of humans and other mammals, Casadevall said.

The study provides some support for the global warming hypothesis because, first and foremost, it identified C. auris in a natural environment, which is a requirement for the hypothesis, the editorial said. In addition, the "wilder" isolate could be a missing link of sorts between wild C. auris and those that cause infections in hospitals.

Still, the study does not prove that C. auris naturally lives on the Andaman Islands, or that it originated there. It's possible that the microbe could have been introduced by people, particularly at the beach site that had more human activity.

In addition, some researchers have wondered whether the microbe may have been carried by ocean currents from areas where human waste was dumped into the water to the shores of the Andaman Islands, Casadevall said.

The new findings will likely spur more researchers to look for C. auris in natural environments, and to compare wild strains with those from hospitals, Casadevall said.

Studies could also examine whether wild C. auris isolates with less heat tolerance could "evolve" in a lab setting to grow at higher temperatures, thus providing more support for the global warming hypothesis, the editorial said.

If it is indeed shown that C. auris came from the wild, and that global warming was a factor in its jump to humans, researchers are concerned that more pathogens could make the same leap.

Many fungal organisms are harmful to insects and amphibians, but not to people because of our high body temperatures, Casadevall noted.

"If this idea gets validated … we need to start mapping out more of these pathogens that are out there so we don't get surprised," like we got surprised by the new coronavirus, Casadevall said.

Related Content

Superbug may be spreading in hospitals overrun with COVID-19

New drugs could stymie superbugs by freezing evolution

11 (sometimes) deadly diseases that hopped across species

This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Health/Medicine; History; Travel
KEYWORDS: candidaauris
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1 posted on 03/18/2021 11:46:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

Where has Bill Gates been lately?.


2 posted on 03/18/2021 11:48:53 AM PDT by TexasM1A
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To: Red Badger

3 posted on 03/18/2021 11:49:38 AM PDT by JonPreston (Q: Never have so many, been so wrong, so often)
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To: Red Badger

“Casadevall and colleagues have previously hypothesized that increased temperatures due to climate change may have caused C. auris to adapt to higher temperatures in the wild...”

I’m sure the (debatable) .01 degree increase is the culprit.


4 posted on 03/18/2021 11:50:30 AM PDT by Magic Fingers (Political correctness mutates in order to remain virulent.)
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To: Red Badger
"It's a medical mystery, where did it come from..."

Uh, Communist China?

5 posted on 03/18/2021 11:50:31 AM PDT by twister881
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To: Red Badger

bleech the beach


6 posted on 03/18/2021 11:51:25 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: Red Badger

7 posted on 03/18/2021 11:52:26 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: Red Badger

Andaman Islands?

Did they even try looking at the Andawoman Islands?

Filthy bigots.


8 posted on 03/18/2021 11:53:13 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: Red Badger

“C. auris is a fungus that was first discovered in 2009 in a patient in Japan. It seemed to quickly spread around the world, appearing on three different continents around the same time. “

~~~

Candida produce spores, which make them hard to eradicate completely, and allow them to spread outside of hosts (including air born) over distance and time comparatively well.


9 posted on 03/18/2021 11:53:16 AM PDT by z3n
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To: Red Badger

Son of COVID: Reporting for duty!
As bad as, if not worse than MRSA.
Fauci and friends will POUNCE onto this once it’s detected in a few Americans.

“I’m afraid we must all return to full on Lockdown Status for an indefinite period of time. Do all of you think I LIKE being the bearer of such grim news?


10 posted on 03/18/2021 11:56:37 AM PDT by lee martell
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To: Red Badger

Worse than Covid?!?!


11 posted on 03/18/2021 11:58:11 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: Red Badger
The study provides some support for the global warming hypothesis because, first and foremost, it identified C. auris in a natural environment, which is a requirement for the hypothesis, the editorial said. In addition, the “wilder” isolate could be a missing link of sorts between wild C. auris and those that cause infections in hospitals.

Studies could also examine whether wild C. auris isolates with less heat tolerance could “evolve” in a lab setting to grow at higher temperatures, thus providing more support for the global warming hypothesis, the editorial said.

If it is indeed shown that C. auris came from the wild, and that global warming was a factor in its jump to humans, researchers are concerned that more pathogens could make the same leap.

What does this even mean?

It seems they are tenuously striving to show global warming is raising temperatures to closer to that of humans, making it easier to “jump.” However, global warming would also be making germs adjust to a higher temperature than humans, in hotter climates.

Anything in the world could be claimed as fundamentally affected by global warming with this lack of reasoning. Used tires’ temperatures, raised incrementally closer to that of humans, make it more likely they will develop consciousness and take over the world, for instance.

12 posted on 03/18/2021 11:58:16 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: EEGator

Thousands of times worse than Covid. Coming to America soon through the southern border.


13 posted on 03/18/2021 12:01:16 PM PDT by oldasrocks
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To: Red Badger

Oh, Candida
We could make it together
The further from here girl the better
Where the air is fresh and clean
Hmm hmm, Candida


14 posted on 03/18/2021 12:03:40 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: DannyTN

I always wondered why Tony wanted to sing about a yeast infection.................


15 posted on 03/18/2021 12:04:28 PM PDT by Red Badger ("We've always been at war with Climate Change, Winston."..............................)
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To: Red Badger

Must have been one of those bug lovers.


16 posted on 03/18/2021 12:07:13 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: Red Badger

“...chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health”

Yeah, nothing suspicious there.


17 posted on 03/18/2021 12:08:48 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Red Badger

OMG! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!
EVERYONE HAS TO QUARANTINE AT HOME!
ONLY BIG BOX STORES CAN REMAIN OPEN FOR BASIC ITEMS ONLY.
SMALL BUSINESS MUST CLOSE TO SAVE US ALL!
THE GUBMINT, AND THE SOYLENT CORPORATION WILL SAVE US ALL. SOYLENT GREEN WILL SOON BE AVAILABLE TO ALL, PROVIDED BY YOUR EVERY LOVING GUBMINT, GRACIOUS BIG TECH, AND THE SOYLENT CORPORATION. PLEASE APPLY*.

*NOTE: Offer does not apply to Christians, Jews or conservatives.

</sarc>

18 posted on 03/18/2021 12:10:26 PM PDT by A Formerly Proud Canadian (I once was blind but now I see... )
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To: Red Badger

Just when people are getting vaccinated and Rand Paul is telling Fauci that wearing masks after having the illness or the vaccine is “theater,” and he’s right, now TPTB creates yet another reason to worry.


19 posted on 03/18/2021 12:11:17 PM PDT by proud American in Canada (As Patrick Henry once said, "Give me Liberty or Give me Death!" Especially now.)
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To: Red Badger

Can almost guarantee they contaminated their samples.


20 posted on 03/18/2021 12:13:32 PM PDT by Born to Conserve
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