People infected with C. Auris shed the fungus with their skin, contaminating beds, bed rails, doorknobs, and windowsills, according to an article on the Everyday Health website.
The findings confirmed that the superbug not only colonizes the skin, but persists on surfaces.
“Our findings emphasize the importance of environmental cleaning and disinfection, including of high-touch surfaces like bed rails,” said the author of the study, Joseph Sexton, PhD, a microbiologist in the Mycotic Diseases Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
C. auris recently has been on the rise across the globe. In the United States alone, cases have more than doubled in one year, from 257 in the spring of 2018 to 654 so far in 2019, according to the CDC.
Severe Winter Weather: What Healthcare Facilities Must Prioritize
Recovery Centers of America Opens New Facility in Florida
Munson Healthcare Caught Up in Third-Party Data Breach
From Downtime to Data: Rethinking Restroom Reliability in Healthcare
LeChase Building Four-Story Addition to UHS Delaware Valley Hospital