Serious! Mushrooms that infect Apparently Immune Drug


Mushrooms are often cited as a major cause of infections in hospitals were resistant, resistant to the drug alias. Really?

Scientists who studied a fungus claims that 'the penginfeksi' man in the hospital turned out to be resistant to the drug.

Fungus known as Candida albicans is widespread among human and relatively harmless to healthy people, but can be fatal for hospital patients with weakened immune systems.

So, what kind of malignancy fungi attack humans?

Fungus C. albicans, responsible for a quarter of all blood infections that developed in the hospital.

When the patient's defenses are low, the fungus can move from the intestine into the bloodstream, colonize on the surface of plastics such as pacemakers, artificial joints and catheters, and attack the organs.

As C. difficile and MRSA have the ability to evolve and develop resistance to current treatments, although it is not commonly transmitted between patients.

New method that doctors use to attack the fungus is a variety of drugs known as echinocandins, which attacks the enzymes that produce sugars that allow to grow.

Dr Carol Munro, researchers Auntum Conference of General Microbiology Aberdeen University explained that if not killed directly by the drug, the fungus can make them ineffective in changing the structure of the cells to produce higher levels of the different sugars, allowing the infection to spread.

Meanwhile, as reported by the Telegraph, the Health Protection Agency figures show that in 2009 there were more than 1,500 cases of candidaemia, the fungus enters the blood in the UK.

In the same year there were 3,000 cases of MRSA, but the infection rate dropped dramatically since, reaching less than 100 months beginning this summer.

As many as 60% of healthy people have a C albicans in their bodies and many experience no symptoms at all, while others may develop a fungal infection.

But in people whose immune systems have been weakened by treatments for diseases such as cancer and HIV, or with organ transplants, the fungus can enter the bloodstream.

Although older, alternative treatments can be effective against fungi, is often applied too late and the mortality rate for people with severe infections can be up to 50%, experts said.

"It is important to develop a new range of drugs to prevent these figures rising," explains Dr. Munro.

Dr. Munro adds C. albicans does not infect many people as MRSA, but doctors are afraid of getting an infection that bombards them with medication from the start that weaken the immune system.

"There is quite a low level of resistance of the fungus but the overall survival rate tended to be very poor if it does not get to that level," he added.

"Often by the time doctors diagnose a fungal infection and treatment is started too late."

Earlier this week, a study published in the journal Public Library of Sciences reported that researchers may have identified weaknesses hidden in C. albicans which can present a new target for treatment.

By disabling a protein that enables yeast cells attach to humans and their colonises, a biologist at Imperial College London, said it could be possible to stop the fungus from spreading.