US health officials are warning hundreds of thousands of clinicians in hospitals around the country to be on the lookout for an emerging and highly drug-resistant type of yeast that is causing potentially fatal infections in hospitalized patients around the world.

Most people are familiar with the kind of yeast infections that people get on the skin or in their genitals. But invasive yeast infections can be fatal, especially for patients in intensive care or having surgery.

Others at risk include people with diabetes, patients taking powerful antibiotics and antifungal medications, and those with catheters.

This emerging strain of yeast, known as Candida auris, has triggered outbreaks in health-care settings, causing bloodstream, wound and ear infections. Since 2009, the pathogen has been found in nine countries on four continents, including one possible infection in the United States in 2013.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a clinical alert late last week to US health-care facilities and dozens of medical societies to share with their members.

Washington Post