Floyd Wormley, associate provost for research and dean of graduate studies, was featured on CBS Evening News, along with other news outlets, as an expert on a drug-resistant superbug fungus recently found in Dallas and Washington, D.C. Candida auris can be deadly.
“So if you were in the hospital, you have a severely weakened immune system and you were undergoing certain treatments or therapies in which this organism can gain access to your body, then it can cause issues,” Wormley said.
CBS cited Wormley as being one of the researchers working with the National Institutes of Health to fight the superbug, and he thinks there’s potential for an effective treatment in two to three years.
Wormley explained to Newsweek one of the reasons the fungus is such a challenge.
“A lot of the chemicals and disinfectants and cleaners that hospitals use to clean their surfaces, to clean their environments are not effective against Candida auris,” he said.
Wormley described its origin to CBS News.
“This fungus was first identified in 2009 with an ear infection of a patient in Japan. Then it made its way through South Korea where it caused some issues. And it has been slowly but gradually going across the globe.”
As he told the Dallas Morning News, it is primarily the immune compromised who are at risk.
“If you are immunocompetent, young and healthy, I would not be concerned,” Wormley said.