Rutgers granted $300,000 contract to investigate fungal infection spread in hospitals

Rutgers University has been awarded a $300,000 contract by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the next two years in order to address a deadly fungal infection spreading through hospitals.

Candida auris is a variant of yeast that can enter the bloodstream and is both difficult to identify and has been quite resistant to common antifungal drugs. It can also be rather easily transmitted between patients and the environment. The result is a deadly infection that has already been observed in 10 states, though New York City and the state of New Jersey have suffered the most. Hospitals are at greatest risk and the CDC has already determined it as a potential global threat.

“As reports of C. auris continue to mount within U.S. healthcare facilities, it is worrisome that the problem may grow much worse,” David Perlin, executive director and professor of the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School’s Public Health Research Institute, said. “The keys to containing the epidemic are infection control, the development of molecular tools to reliably and rapidly identify the pathogen and a better understanding of its genetic profile that facilitates transmission within hospital environments.”

For the purposes of the study, researchers will analyze transmission patterns in New Jersey health care facilities, utilizing genetic fingerprint technology. Their end goal is to develop a method of quick, accurate detection of the fungus using swabs.

The fungus was first discovered in a patient in Japan back in 2009. To date, the CDC has confirmed 153 cases and possible infections in the United States alone.