The emergence of fungus Candida auris highlights the danger of antimicrobial resistance. Resistant to common antibiotics and antifungal, the rise of "superbugs" threaten to render many of our tried-and-true drugs powerless. But there's something different about this fungus. It's a yeast that's acting like a bacteria. Other species of Candida already travel with us -- on our skin, in our guts -- and they don't tend to cause infections unless there's an imbalance. This can happen, for example, when antibiotics wipe out good bacteria with the bad, leaving a place for Candida to grow When this happens in the mouth, it's commonly referred to as thrush.
In the vagina, it's a yeast infection. But most Candida is not known to be transmitted in health care settings, and C. auris is. According to the CDC, C. auris can travel through health care facilities by lingering on surfaces and medical…
