Hospitals report fungus outbreak

More than 200 people have been contaminated or infected with a potentially deadly strain of drug-resistant fungus during outbreaks at UK hospitals.

Some 20 separate NHS trusts and independent hospitals detected Candida auris in patients, with three hospitals being forced to tackle “large” outbreaks of the pathogen that is “difficult to control”. First discovered in Japan, the family of yeasts can live on the skin and inside the body, causing complications in people with weakened immune systems.