Deadly superbug confirmed in 23 states can hide in your hair follicles and rewire your immune system

This creepy discovery could leave you scratching your head.A new study found that a deadly fungus can burrow deep into hair follicles, rewire the immune system and transform human skin into what one researcher described as a “perfect nest” for infection.And the threat may be closer than you think.Cases of the superbug have been reported in more than two dozen states this year alone — including areas just across the river from New York City.Discovered in Japan in 2009 and first identified in the US in 2016, Candida auris is a type of yeast that can enter the bloodstream and travel throughout the body.The fungus is primarily transmitted in healthcare settings like hospitals and nursing homes, where it can linger on contaminated surfaces for weeks at a time.Some strains of the fungus are resistant to all major classes of antifungal medications, leading the CDC to label C.

auris an “urgent antimicrobial resistance threat.”For most people with healthy immune systems, the pathogen doesn’t cause serious illness.But they can still harbor the fungus and unknowingly pass it along to people at greater risk.In fact, C.

auris can survive silently on the skin for months without causing symptoms.That makes it different from other fungi, such as Candida albicans, which the immune system usually clears quickly.In the latest study, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco sought out to understand why.

In lab experiments, they infected mice with both fungi.They found that C.

albicans disappeared within days, while C.auris remained, taking refuge inside hair follicles.The researchers also discovered that the two fungi triggered dramatically different immune responses.When the immune system encountered C.

albicans, it activated a response called IL-17, which helps repair the skin’s surface and strengthens the body’s natural defenses against fungi — allowing the infection to be cleared.But C.auris spurred a different reaction.

Instead of trigger...