Hospitals mobilize to fight deadly superbug doctors call a "double whammy"

Author: CBS NEWS

A strain of Candida auris cultured in a petri dish at a CDC laboratory.

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Less than a year ago, Stephanie Spoor was celebrating the engagement of her son Zachary. "It was unfathomable she wouldn't make it to the wedding in June," said Zachary's brother Nicholas. 
 
Stephanie suffered from lupus but according to her son, the autoimmune disease was under control. When she started having breathing problems, she was admitted to a Chicago-area hospital. Within weeks, she contracted candida auris. ​

"Doctors asked for a family meeting. It was four or five of us and 13 doctors and that's when we knew it was bad, it was bad," Nicholas recalled. 

Instead of attending her son's June wedding, Stephanie watched him take his vows in a sterile hospital room. A few days later, she died at 64 years old. 
 
Candida is a yeast that can cause infection if it gets into parts of the body where it doesn't belong – like the bloodstream. It's usually treated with antifungal medicine but widespread overuse of antibiotics and antifungals has bred this superbug species of candida known as auris.
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Dr. Mark Rupp, chief of infectious diseases at Nebraska Medicine, said the overuse of antibiotics and antifungals leaves fewer treatment options.

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