California Leads US With 873 Cases of Deadly Fungus

Thousands of cases involving a potentially lethal, drug-resistant fungus have flooded reports across 27 states already this year. Provisional CDC data confirms the grim reality: as of the week ending July 25, 3,437 clinical cases of Candida auris were documented in the United States for 2026.

California stands out starkly with 873 cases, making up roughly one-quarter of the national total. Texas follows with 433, Tennessee holds 283, and Ohio has 279. Georgia trails with 193, Louisiana with 179, while Illinois, Arizona, Michigan, Virginia, and Pennsylvania round out the top ten with counts ranging from 171 down to 121. Every other state reports fewer than 100 cases each.

Candida auris is a yeast that triggers severe infections, mostly inside hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare facilities. This fungus survives on surfaces for long stretches. It spreads easily between patients via contact with contaminated surfaces or objects, the CDC notes. Think bedrails, doorknobs, and shared medical gear as vectors for transmission. Even people carrying the fungus without showing symptoms can spread it through a process called colonization.

Not every clinical case equals an active infection. The CDC defines a clinical case simply as detecting C. auris in a specimen gathered during routine medical care. Some of those samples come from sites where presence indicates colonization rather than a true disease state. Health effects swing wildly, ranging from symptom-free carriage to deadly invasive infections like bloodstream outbreaks.

Those most at risk are patients suffering severe underlying conditions. Individuals using breathing tubes, feeding tubes, IVs, or catheters face higher vulnerability. Long hospital stays also increase danger. People lacking these risk factors rarely get colonized or develop an infection.

Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox News senior medical analyst and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone, calls C. auris an emerging problem of great concern. He told Fox News Digital that the fungus resists multiple antifungal drugs and spreads easily in hospitals, particularly on equipment used for immunocompromised patients like ventilators and catheters. Symptoms such as fever, chills, and aches may be ubiquitous, leading to confusion with other infections.

Invasive C. auris infections carry mortality rates between 30% and 72%. Most affected patients are already seriously ill, making it hard to pin the fungus directly on death counts. The CDC classifies this organism as an urgent antimicrobial-resistance threat because treating it is difficult. More than 90% of U.S. samples resist fluconazole, a standard antifungal treatment. Echinocandins remain the main option now, though some strains resist all three primary classes of antifungals.

Major research continues to develop new cures, Siegel says. This issue reflects a much larger problem of emerging antibiotic resistance across the U.S. and globally. Meanwhile, sterilization and disinfection measures in hospitals offer significant help. Fox News Digital's Angelica Stabile contributed reporting on this developing story.