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Global Spread of Candida Auris Reaches 60 Countries

Is Candida auris a contained health care issue, or an urgent emerging threat requiring immediate global action?

Published DEC 31 2025

Global Spread of Candida Auris Reaches 60 Countries

Story

Above: Oliver Kurzai holds a petri dish with Candida auris at the Wuerzburg University lab on Jan. 23, 2018. Image credit: Nicolas Armer/picture alliance/Getty Images

The Facts

Candida auris (C. auris), an invasive yeast first identified in Japan in 2009, has now been detected in more than 60 countries across six continents, according to a review in Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. The fungus is reported to colonize skin and survive on surfaces, aiding its spread in health care settings.
Journals
National Library of Medicine
Independent
The World Health Organization first classified C. auris as a critical priority pathogen in 2022 due to its rapid spread and increasing resistance to existing treatments. The CDC reported 7,000 cases in the U.S. in 2025, approaching the previous year's record of over 7,500 cases.
WHO
WFLA
Manchester Evening News
In England, confirmed C. auris cases have risen steadily, with 26 cases in 2021, 38 in 2022, 93 in 2023 and 178 in 2024, according to U.K. Health Security Agency data. The agency noted that rates remain "very low," but have been increasing in recent years.
Express.co.uk
Manchester Evening News
C. auris spreads in hospitals through contact with contaminated surfaces or medical devices such as catheters, feeding tubes and ventilators. It can survive for long periods and produces proteins that allow it to cling tightly to human skin, facilitating transmission between patients.
Eastern Eye
Manchester Evening News
The fungus primarily affects people with weakened immune systems and has been linked by the CDC to mortality rates of 30–60%. Standard lab tests often misidentify it as other yeast species, delaying antifungal therapy, and accurate detection requires specialized mass spectrometry techniques.
WFLA
The Conversation
CDC
Some scientists theorize that climate change is contributing to the spread of C. auris and similar pathogens. As global temperatures rise, fungi are adapting to higher temperatures, potentially enabling them to survive at human body temperature.
WFLA
Manchester Evening News

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

Drug-resistant fungal diseases like Candida auris represent a critical emerging threat that's rapidly spreading across hospitals and developing resistance to last-line antifungals. This pathogen has independently emerged on multiple continents, likely adapting to warmer temperatures, and now threatens to become untreatable without urgent action on surveillance and new drug development.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

The Hill

The Lancet

Narrative B

Candida auris infections remain confined to health care facilities affecting severely immunocompromised patients with indwelling medical devices, not the general public. The real lesson here involves improving infection control practices and staffing in long-term care facilities rather than fearmongering about apocalyptic scenarios.