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What You Need to Know about Candida auris, its Symptoms and Spread in Hospitals

(CTN News) – Candida auris (C. auris) is a drug-resistant fungus known for around 15 years but is already one of the most dreaded hospital microorganisms in the world.
The yeast-like fungus can cause problems with the circulatory system, the neurological system, and several internal organs if it manages to enter the body.
Patients with an invasive illness have a death rate of between 30 and 53 percent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The fact that the fungus resists the most common antifungal medications adds more cause for concern. James Gallagher, the BBC’s health correspondent, warns that certain strains resist all available treatments.
More than 30 nations have reported outbreaks, as reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
From 2009 to 2019, roughly 4,750 new cases were reported in 2020 from those countries.
According to the CDC, new information from 2020 and 2021 shows that the fungus “spread at an alarming rate in US healthcare facilities.”
The number of clinical cases in the country tripled between 2019 and 2021, rising from 476 to 1,471.
A 2019 study by an international group of experts also found that climate change-related temperature increases may have contributed to the increase in Candida auris infections.
The facts regarding this lethal superbug are laid forth below.
What is Candida auris?
Candida auris (C. auris) is a yeast, a family of fungi that includes both useful to humans and pathogenic species, such as those used in baking and brewing.
Thrush is caused by the common yeast Candida albicans, which can potentially lead to more serious illnesses.
Candida auris got its name when it was found in a patient’s ear canal at the Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital in 2009. (auris is Latin for the ear).
Candida yeasts can coexist on the skin without causing any issues in healthy people.
However, when we are weakened, or the yeasts travel to an inappropriate location, such as the bloodstream or the lungs, they can cause infections.
What sort of illness does it cause?
The bloodstream is the most common site of infection caused by C. auris, but the respiratory system, central nervous system, internal organs, and skin are all vulnerable.
In most cases, these infections become fatal.
Infections caused by fungi are notoriously challenging to cure due to the fungus’s resistance to standard treatments.
“The biggest problem with this fungus is its resistance to the drugs we have,” said Dr. Tina Joshi, associate professor in Molecular Biology at the University of Plymouth, in the UK.
C. auris infections are notoriously tricky to diagnose since they resemble many other fungal infections.
This implies the patient’s illness may persist or worsen before receiving the care they need.
How does it spread?
Hospitals are particularly high-risk for transmission because of the prevalence of patient contact with contaminated surfaces. It is affixed to blood pressure cuffs and intravenous lines.
According to Dr. Neil Stone, a top fungus expert at University College London Hospital for Tropical Diseases, it is extremely difficult to remove.
Total ward closures are a common response.
Dr. Stone characterized it as “the most worrying fungi,” warning that ignoring it would be a mistake.
It has the potential to disrupt medical services nationwide.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated on March 20 claiming that fresh data shows the fungus has “spread at an alarming rate” in the United States.
Should I be worried about getting an infection?
Getting infected with C. auris during your regular day is highly improbable.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, patients in intensive care settings and those hospitalized for an extended period are at particularly high risk for contracting C. auris.
Antibiotic overuse increases infection risk because the medications kill off beneficial bacteria that otherwise would keep C. auris out of the body.
Why is C. auris resistant to the usual drugs?
Most strains of Candida auris have developed resistance to the most frequently used antifungal medications, such as fluconazole.
This indicates that Candida auris is resistant to these medicines. This has led to the adoption of less widely available antifungal medicines for the treatment of infections; nevertheless, C. auris has also shown resistance to them.
DNA analysis reveals that C. auris harbors antifungal resistance genes comparable to those of the widespread C. albicans.
This raises the possibility that genes for resistance were transferred between the species.
If global warming is to blame for the outbreak, why aren’t fewer cases?
In 2019, researchers from the American Society for Microbiology released a paper in their journal mBio that hypothesized that C. auris’s rise in prevalence could be traced to the fact that it now must adapt to greater temperatures as a result of global warming.
Fungi thrive in the soil’s typically lower temperatures. However, since the Earth’s average temperature has increased, C. auris has had to modify its habitat accordingly.
This may be why the fungus did so well within the human body, where temperatures average between 36 and 37 degrees Celsius.
What can be done to control the number of infections?
The first step in minimizing C. auris infections is improving our knowledge of who is at the greatest risk of developing the disease.
When studying fungi, “we are behind the curve,” as Dr. Joshi put it.
“I’m not surprised that we’re playing catch-up now.”
People with compromised immune systems or those who spend extended time in healthcare facilities, such as hospitals or nursing homes, should be considered at higher risk.
There is variation in how different medical centers diagnose C. auris. Treatment for thrush, another fungal infection, is sometimes administered to a person with an athlete’s foot.
Earlier detection of C. auris cases will allow for more effective treatment and less chance of the disease spreading to other patients.
Dr. Joshi stressed the importance of bolstering infection prevention measures.
We know how hard it is to treat the effects of infection on patients; thus, preventing them is the top priority.
Sanitation and housekeeping in hospitals must be prioritized.
Is this the only nasty fungus around?
Just barely. The World Health Organization (WHO) identified no fewer than 19 fungi that pose a significant threat to human health in its first-ever list of fungal “priority pathogens,” issued in October last year.
According to the WHO, Candida auris is “intrinsically resistant to most available antifungal medicines,” making it one of four fungi in the “critical priority” category.
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Trudeau’s Gun Grab Could Cost Taxpayers a Whopping $7 Billion

A recent report indicates that since Trudeau’s announcement of his gun buyback program four years ago, almost none of the banned firearms have been surrendered.
The federal government plans to purchase 2,063 firearm models from retailers following the enactment of Bill C-21, which amends various Acts and introduces certain consequential changes related to firearms. It was granted royal assent on December 15 of last year.
This ban immediately criminalized the actions of federally-licensed firearms owners regarding the purchase, sale, transportation, importation, exportation, or use of hundreds of thousands of rifles and shotguns that were previously legal.
The gun ban focused on what it termed ‘assault-style weapons,’ which are, in reality, traditional semi-automatic rifles and shotguns that have enjoyed popularity among hunters and sport shooters for over a century.
In May 2020, the federal government enacted an Order-in-Council that prohibited 1,500 types of “assault-style” firearms and outlined specific components of the newly banned firearms. Property owners must adhere to the law by October 2023.
Trudeau’s Buyback Hasn’t Happened
“In the announcement regarding the ban, the prime minister stated that the government would seize the prohibited firearms, assuring that their lawful owners would be ‘grandfathered’ or compensated fairly.” “That hasn’t happened,” criminologist Gary Mauser told Rebel News.
Mauser projected expenses ranging from $2.6 billion to $6.7 billion. The figure reflects the compensation costs amounting to $756 million, as outlined by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).
“The projected expenses for gathering the illegal firearms are estimated to range from $1.6 billion to $7 billion.” “This range estimate increases to between $2.647 billion and $7 billion when compensation costs to owners are factored in,” Mauser stated.
Figures requested by Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs concerning firearms prohibited due to the May 1, 2020 Order In Council reveal that $72 million has been allocated to the firearm “buyback” program, yet not a single firearm has been confiscated to date.
In a recent revelation, Public Safety Canada disclosed that the federal government allocated a staggering $41,094,556, as prompted by an order paper question from Conservative Senator Don Plett last September, yet yielded no tangible outcomes.
An internal memo from late 2019 revealed that the Liberals projected their politically motivated harassment would incur a cost of $1.8 billion.
Enforcement efforts Questioned
By December 2023, estimates from TheGunBlog.ca indicate that the Liberals and RCMP had incurred or were responsible for approximately $30 million in personnel expenses related to the enforcement efforts. The union representing the police service previously stated that the effort to confiscate firearms is a “misdirected effort” aimed at ensuring public safety.
“This action diverts crucial personnel, resources, and funding from tackling the more pressing and escalating issue of criminal use of illegal firearms,” stated the National Police Federation (NPF).
The Canadian Sporting Arms & Ammunition Association (CSAAA), representing firearms retailers, has stated it will have “zero involvement” in the confiscation of these firearms. Even Canada Post held back from providing assistance due to safety concerns.
The consultant previously assessed that retailers are sitting on almost $1 billion worth of inventory that cannot be sold or returned to suppliers because of the Order-In-Council.
“Despite the ongoing confusion surrounding the ban, after four years, we ought to be able to address one crucial question.” Has the prohibition enhanced safety for Canadians? Mauser asks.
Illegally Obtained Firearms are the Problem
Statistics Canada reports a 10% increase in firearm-related violent crime between 2020 and 2022, rising from 12,614 incidents to 13,937 incidents. In that timeframe, the incidence of firearm-related violent crime increased from 33.7 incidents per 100,000 population in 2021 to 36.7 incidents the subsequent year.
“This marks the highest rate documented since the collection of comparable data began in 2009,” the criminologist explains.
Supplementary DataData indicates that firearm homicides have risen since 2020. “The issue lies not with lawfully-held firearms,” Mauser stated.
Firearms that have been banned under the Order-in-Council continue to be securely stored in the safes of their lawful owners. The individuals underwent a thorough vetting process by the RCMP and are subject to nightly monitoring to ensure there are no infractions that could pose a risk to public safety.
“The firearms involved in homicides were seldom legally owned weapons wielded by their rightful owners,” Mauser continues. The number of offenses linked to organized crime has surged from 4,810 in 2016 to a staggering 13,056 in 2020.
“If those in power … aim to diminish crime and enhance public safety, they ought to implement strategies that effectively focus on offenders and utilize our limited tax resources judiciously to reach these objectives,” he stated.
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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.
According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.
Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.
Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.
Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.
To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.
Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.
On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.
In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.
Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.
TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.
When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.
And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.
Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.
A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.
Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.
But today, it feels more like reality.
Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.
SOURCE | CNN
News
The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.
The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.
Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.
This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.
In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.
The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.
This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.
The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.
In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.
According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.
Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.
The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.
For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.
Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.
As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.
As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.
The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.
SOURCE: AP
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