Nursing-home residents’ skin is a source of transmitted harmful and drug-resistant microbes

NEWS AND VIEWS 26 February 2025 Genomic sequencing has revealed that individual strains of life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and Candida auris fungi reside on human skin and can be commonly transmitted between residents of nursing homes. By Teresa R. O’MearaORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8901-01540 Teresa R. O’Meara Teresa R. O’Meara is in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA. View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Twitter Facebook Email Candida auris is a fungal species that causes human disease. It was discovered1 in 2009 and has caused life-threatening and body-wide (systemic) outbreaks of infection in people around the world. This species is unusual among disease-causing fungi in its ability to drive hospital-associated outbreaks. Writing in Nature, Proctor et al.2 reveal that C. auris is present on the skin and can be spread between indivi...