Wastewater tracking catches hospital fungus before patients show symptoms

A new UNLV-led wastewater surveillance study brings scientists one step closer in the global race to detect and deter skyrocketing cases of a potentially deadly drug-resistant fungus that puts hospital patients at risk of serious blood, heart, or brain infections.

Edwin Oh, study co-author, professor and director, Center for Water Intelligence and Community Health, UNLVThese findings open a new frontier for hospitals, which will no longer have to rely solely on clues in clinical records or case-by-case testing on individuals who are already ill."

"Too often, a patient's own illness is the first signal that a drug-resistant strain has arrived in a facility, and by then it may already be spreading," said study co-lead author Ching-Lan (Lanie) Chang, a neuroscience doctoral student at UNLV. "Wastewater surveillance changes that timeline, giving healthcare workers, patients, and their families a head start that simply didn't exist before. New antifungal treatments and a vaccine remain longer-term goals, but the genomic repository we've built from this work lays the groundwork. In the meantime, wastewater intelligence gives us the ability to act right now."

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University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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