NEW YORK — A first-of-its-kind U.S. study suggests invasive mold infections may be an under-recognized threat that can be deadly.
Researchers found about 450 cases in Atlanta-area hospitals over five years. About one-third of patients die in hospital.
research results, Published this week The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to better measure how common such illnesses are. The government does not require doctors to report illnesses.
“This is the first time we’ve made an estimate like this,” said the study’s senior author Dr. Jeremy Gold of the CDC.
He added that it’s important to understand this now because the problem may become more severe in the future. Researchers have found that mold exposure is a recurring problem after hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters affected by climate change.
“I agree that the frequency of fungal infections is likely to increase with climate change,” said Dr. Jeffrey Jenks, an infectious disease researcher at Duke University.
At the same time, Gold said, an increasing number of older people are more likely to develop such illnesses.
Invasive mycosis is a rare infection caused by certain species. Most infected people inhale mold spores, but they can also enter the body through wounds or contaminated medical equipment.
These spores cause no health problems for most people, but can be life-threatening for some, including older adults, cancer patients and others with weakened immune systems.
Previously, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Researchers estimate More than 15,000 hospitalizations each year may be related to invasive mycosis.
To better understand common local cases, the research team worked with four Atlanta-area hospitals and their affiliated outpatient clinics to look for potential cases from 2020 to 2024.
They initially identified nearly 1,000 potential cases but narrowed the number down to about 450 by excluding patients who may have shown signs of exposure but did not qualify for invasive mycosis.
Researchers found that hospitals can expect 3 to 5 cases per 100 inpatient beds per year. Incidence rates are higher at larger academic hospitals because these hospitals tend to treat more complex diseases.
Most patients have compromised immune systems or, in many cases, have weakened immune systems after being infected with COVID-19.
Gold said there could be exposure to mold in hospitals or other medical settings, but the study did not attempt to determine where each patient was first exposed to the mold.
He said it’s difficult to generalize what’s happening in the Atlanta area to other parts of the country where mold is more or less a problem. But it should at least give hospital administrators a rough idea of whether the number of cases they’re seeing is what they expected, or whether it’s an outbreak, Gold added.
Jenks called the study’s results “valuable,” but said “it would be helpful to see the results of similar studies conducted in different parts of the United States.”
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