San Antonio health officials and infectious-disease doctors are tracking a steady and unsettling rise in Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungal “superbug” that targets hospitalized and long-term care patients. Clinicians say the increase in Bexar County mirrors a broader surge across Texas and the rest of the country, with this strain notoriously hard to spot in patients and stubbornly tough to remove from surfaces. For most healthy people, the immediate threat is still low, but for patients with long hospital stays or invasive medical devices, the fungus can be life-threatening.
Federal surveillance numbers show how wide the problem has grown. Through Dec. 20, 2025, about 7,046 clinical Candida auris cases have been listed nationwide and roughly 811 in Texas, representing confirmed infections rather than colonization, according to provisional tallies from the CDC. Those figures can shift as states finalize and reconcile their reports.
Dr. Jason Bowling, an infectious-disease specialist at UT Health San Antonio, told MySA that there is “undoubtedly an increase” in Bexar County, but that limited surveillance makes it difficult to see exactly how far C. auris has spread locally. His warning lines up with what doctors are seeing nationally: the fungus often stays under the radar until it shows up in blood cultures or other clinical samples.
Who’s at risk
Candida auris most often strikes people who are already very sick, including patients with long hospital stays, mechanical ventilators, feeding tubes, or central lines. It can cause invasive bloodstream infections that may be deadly, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The agency has added C. auris to Texas’ notifiable-conditions list and calls for rapid reporting and coordinated screening whenever a case is identified.
Treatment and resistance
Treating C. auris is no simple task. The CDC recommends echinocandins as the first-line therapy for adults and for children older than two months. However, reports of strains that resist echinocandins, and even pan-resistant strains, are on the rise. That can force doctors to turn to combination therapy, amphotericin formulations, or investigational medications. The CDC also stresses that colonization alone should not be treated and that decisions should be guided by susceptibility testing and infectious-disease specialists.
How hospitals try to stop it
Hospitals and nursing homes respond by tightening their cleaning and infection-control playbooks. Facilities ramp up daily and end-of-stay cleaning with EPA-registered products that work against C. auris or C. difficile spores, dedicate or carefully disinfect shared equipment, screen roommates who may have been exposed, and flag patient records to cut off further spread, according to a DSHS advisory. Because C. auris can cling to surfaces for weeks to months, rigorous environmental cleaning and clear communication when patients are transferred between facilities are key to keeping outbreaks in check…