Federal surveillance data show more than 3,000 clinical cases of the drug-resistant fungus Candida auris reported in the United States so far in 2026, with cases logged in 23 states as of July 18.
The people affected are not the general public. Nearly all confirmed infections occur in patients who are already seriously ill: hospital patients on ventilators, people with central venous lines or urinary catheters, and residents of long-term acute care hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. If you have a parent in a nursing home, a relative in an intensive care unit, or a family member with a long-term feeding tube or catheter, this is a story about their facility's infection control practices, not about your kitchen counter.
That distinction matters because the risk is concentrated and largely invisible to families until something goes wrong. C. auris can live on a patient's skin without causing illness, and it can persist on bed rails, blood pressure cuffs, and shared equipment. A patient can carry it from one facility to another during a routine transfer, which is how it typically enters a building.
Where the 2026 Cases Are Concentrated
Texas has reported the largest share of 2026 cases, with 706 as of July 18. Michigan follows with 503, and Illinois with 366. Colorado has reported 13.
Readers should treat these year-to-date numbers carefully. They come from provisional weekly surveillance, which is updated continuously and revised as states reconcile records, and they are not directly comparable to the figures CDC publishes through its separate case-based surveillance system. On its C. auris tracking page, CDC reports 6,304 clinical cases for 2024, the most recent complete year available.
The longer trend is clearer than any single week's count. A CDC surveillance summary published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report documented 13,507 clinical C. auris cases reported nationally from 2022 through 2024, rising from 2,882 in 2022 to 4,428 in 2023 and 6,197 in 2024. The annual rate of increase has slowed, but absolute counts have kept climbing. Reported clinical cases rose from roughly 50 in 2016, the year the fungus was first identified in the United States, to about 1,500 in 2021.
Inside Hospitals and Nursing Homes, the Risk Is Real
The CDC surveillance review found that 87.8% of clinical cases occurred in adults aged 45 and older, 61% were in men, and most were identified from specimens collected in acute care hospitals, followed by long-term acute care hospitals.
Blood specimens accounted for about 30% of clinical cases. Because isolating Candida from blood indicates invasive infection, that share is a concern: published estimates of mortality among patients with invasive C. auris infection range widely, from roughly 30% to 72%, though most of those patients had other serious illnesses that independently raised their risk of death.
Most C. auris isolates resist fluconazole, so echinocandin antifungals are the first-line treatment. Strains resistant to all three major antifungal classes have been detected in the United States, though such multidrug-resistant isolates remain uncommon.
Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told Healthline that facilities should combine several measures: hand hygiene, gowns and gloves for patient care, thorough disinfection of rooms and shared equipment with the right product, clear signage outside a patient's room, and communication about a patient's status during transfers to other facilities or to home and outpatient care. He also said medical facilities should invest in laboratories that can rapidly identify the organism, because older methods can misidentify it.
A Fungus Built to Survive on Surfaces
C. auris behaves differently from most Candida species. It tolerates disinfectants that clear other yeasts, persists on hard surfaces, and spreads between patients through contaminated equipment and hands. CDC advises facilities caring for these patients to use disinfectants specifically tested against the organism rather than general-purpose products.
That durability is why CDC recommends screening patients at higher risk for colonization, including those who have been in facilities with known transmission or who have received healthcare abroad. Screening detects colonization, meaning the fungus is present on the skin without causing illness. A colonized patient is not sick but can still transmit.
Screening cases reported to CDC more than doubled between 2022 and 2024, from 6,226 to 12,432. That increase partly reflects more screening rather than more spread, particularly in acute care hospitals, where admission screening has expanded.
CDC notes that people without healthcare risk factors generally do not become infected or colonized.
Laboratory Blind Spots That Delay Detection
One practical problem in containment is misidentification. Older laboratory methods can mistake C. auris for other yeast species, which means a facility may not know it has a case until the organism has already spread.
CDC's Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network can assist with identification and screening nationwide, and laboratories are advised to notify state or local public health departments when they identify a case. Where a hospital has not upgraded its identification methods, the first sign of transmission may be a cluster rather than a single patient.
Steps for Families with a Hospitalized Relative
If a family member is in an ICU, a long-term acute care hospital, or a ventilator unit, it is reasonable to ask the care team whether the facility screens for C. auris, whether the patient's room requires contact precautions, and how equipment is disinfected between patients. It is also reasonable to ask whether a receiving facility has been told about a patient's status before a transfer. CDC's infection control guidance for healthcare facilities sets out what those practices should look like.
Visitors should follow posted precautions, including gowns and gloves where required, and clean their hands on entering and leaving a room. Follow the specific instructions posted for that room rather than assuming one method covers every pathogen.
Symptoms of invasive infection are nonspecific and can include fever and chills that do not improve with antibiotics. Because those signs overlap with many other conditions, diagnosis depends on laboratory testing rather than symptoms alone. Families should raise concerns with the treating clinician rather than attempting to interpret symptoms themselves.
Healthy people in the community do not need to take special precautions, and there is no consumer product or home cleaning routine that addresses this risk.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Candida auris? It is a yeast that spreads in healthcare facilities and can cause invasive, sometimes fatal infections. It is frequently resistant to antifungal drugs and can colonize patients without causing symptoms.
How many cases have been reported this year? Provisional CDC surveillance shows more than 3,000 clinical cases across 23 states as of July 18, 2026. These counts are preliminary and change as states report.
Am I at risk if I am generally healthy? CDC states that people without healthcare risk factors generally do not become infected or colonized. Risk is concentrated among patients with invasive devices and prolonged facility stays.
How does it spread? Through contaminated surfaces and equipment and through contact with colonized patients or the hands of caregivers. It can persist on surfaces and on skin.
What are the symptoms? There is no distinctive symptom pattern. Fever and chills are common but nonspecific. Diagnosis requires laboratory testing of a clinical specimen.
What should I ask if my relative is hospitalized? Ask whether the facility screens for C. auris, whether contact precautions apply, how shared equipment is disinfected, and whether transfer facilities are notified of a patient's status.
Is there a treatment? Echinocandin antifungals are first-line therapy because most isolates resist fluconazole. Resistance varies by strain, and some isolates resist multiple drug classes. Treatment decisions belong to the infectious disease team caring for the patient.
