At the critical moment of the anti-epidemic, the spread of ＂super fungi＂ in the United States caused three deaths.

　　BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua)-On the 22nd, local time, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Valensky once again issued an urgent appeal to the current epidemic in the United States, warning that the United States has not completely escaped from the epidemic. On the other hand, the spread of "super fungi" in the United States has caused three deaths.

　　Delta variant virus is rampant

　　America’s fight against epidemic meets "critical moment"

　　On the 22nd local time, CDC director Valensky said that Delta variant virus is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses that scientists have ever seen.

　　She stressed that the Delta strain is more aggressive and contagious than the previous (COVID-19) strain. "This is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses that we know at present and that I have seen since I was in business for 20 years."

　　Delta variant virus is currently spreading rapidly in the United States. As of this week, 83% of the sequenced cases have been infected with this variant virus; At the beginning of July, this figure was only 50%.

　　Valensky also warned about the epidemic in the United States on the same day. She said that Delta variant virus is spreading widely in areas with low vaccination rate, which is another "critical moment" for the United States to fight the epidemic.

　　Valensky implored those who had not been vaccinated to "take the Delta variant seriously". She stressed, "This virus will not give up automatically. It will constantly search for vulnerable people and infect them. Please consider vaccination and pay attention to epidemic prevention before. "

　　The New York Times pointed out that this is in sharp contrast to the attitude of the White House a few weeks ago. During Independence Day, US President Biden held a grand party on the South Lawn of the White House, announcing that the United States was "independent from the epidemic".

　　According to the report, Valensky’s latest statement shows that officials are increasingly worried that the achievements already made are being lost, and the current surge in cases may overwhelm local health systems with low vaccine penetration rate and high hospitalization rate.

　　There is a "super fungus" spread in the United States.

　　Three people have died and there is no cure.

　　On the other hand, US health officials said on the 22nd that there is evidence that an "incurable" fungus has spread in two hospitals and a nursing home, causing three deaths.

　　According to the CDC report, a nursing home in Washington, D.C. and two hospitals in Dallas, Texas, broke out with "super fungus" infection. A few patients have invasive fungal infections, and the three main drugs are ineffective against these infections.

　　"This is indeed the first time that we have started to see cases of drug resistance aggregation," said Dr. Megan Lyman of CDC, in which patients are obviously infected with each other.

　　For many years, health officials have been warning about the possibility of this super fungus after discovering that some commonly used drugs are almost ineffective against fungal infection.

　　In 2019, doctors diagnosed three cases in new york, and these cases were also resistant to a class of drugs called echinocandin, which is considered as the last line of defense against fungal infection. But in the case of new york, there is no evidence that the infection has spread between patients. The scientists concluded that drug resistance was formed during the treatment.

　　However, the CDC concluded from the latest cases that these fungal infections did spread.

　　In Washington, D.C., there were 101 cases of Candida auricula infection in a nursing home for seriously ill patients, of which 3 cases were resistant to all three antifungal drugs. There are 22 infected people in two hospitals in Dallas, and two of them have this drug resistance.

　　According to the CDC, these cases occurred from January to April 2021. Of the five people who were completely ineffective in treatment, three died, two of them were hospital patients in Texas and the other was in Washington.

　　Lyman said that cases in both places have continued to erupt, and other infections have been found since April. However, new cases have not been reported.

　　Investigators looked at medical records and found no evidence that patients in these clusters had used antifungal drugs before. Health officials say this means that they will spread from person to person.