Once a freak occurrence, fungi resistant to standard drugs now threaten millions of vulnerable Americans.
It took doctors a month to figure out a fungus had infected Glenda Brame’s bloodstream. The delay likely led to her death.
The 56-year-old died in September, felled by a fungus that kills between 30% and 60% of people it infects. Brame had exhibited signs of a serious infection for weeks, her medical records show. Doctors at Horizon Specialty Hospital in Las Vegas suspected bacteria and gave her antibiotics. Her infection worsened.
“They kept pumping her full of antibiotics,” said her husband, Malcolm Brame.
Brame’s death could have been prevented had doctors promptly treated the fungal infection, according to infectious-disease specialists who reviewed her case but weren’t involved in her care. Horizon said it had followed infection-control protocols to prevent and curb the spread of the fungus.
Severe fungal disease used to be a freak occurrence. Now it is a threat to millions of vulnerable Americans, and treatments have been losing efficacy as fungal pathogens develop resistance to standard drugs.