NEW YORK (WPIX/CNN) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued an alarm regarding a deadly superbug on the rise nationwide and now centered in the New York metropolitan area.
The fungus is called Candida Auris, or just C. auris.
It was first detected in Japan in 2009, and is now reported in at least 12 countries.
The superbug is now added to the federal list of germs called urgent threats.
There have been 587 cases reported in the U.S., of those, 309 are in New York. There are also 104 recorded cases in the New Jersey area.
Overuse of antibiotics is apparently making the fungus very resistant to drugs.
It mostly affects people whose health is most vulnerable elderly, sick patients and sick infants.
New York City's health department said it is a state health issue. The state said it had nobody available on camera to address the subject.
Mount Sinai Brooklyn is one of the very few facilities admitting it has had the germs, after the New York Times found that an elderly patient died from the condition there.