A drug-resistant fungus is spreading rapidly through hospitals across the United States and beyond, medical experts have cautioned. Scientists at the Hackensack Meridian Centre for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) have revealed that candida auris (C. auris) is proliferating worldwide and showing increasing resistance to human immune defences. The research has labelled the “superbug fungus” as an “urgent antimicrobial threat”, marking it as the first fungal pathogen to earn such a classification. This comes amid a sharp rise in American cases, according to the New York Post. The CDC reports approximately 7,000 identified cases spanning dozens of states across America, whilst the fungus has now been detected in no fewer than 60 nations globally. Published in the Microbiology and Molecular Biology Review, the study warns that available treatments are proving inadequate. In a statement, researchers emphasised the urgent requirement to develop “novel antifungal agents with broad-spectrum activity against human fungal pathogens, to improve diagnostic tests and to develop immune- and vaccine-based adjunct modalities for the treatment of high-risk patients. “In addition, future efforts should focus on …