Overview
- The CDC published an analysis in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Oct. 2 that highlighted a roughly fourfold rise in detections of Cladophialophora bantiana per 1,000 central nervous system specimens between 2023 and 2025.
- A University of Washington clinical reference laboratory recorded 48 confirmed and one probable case from January 2009 through July 2026 with annual counts climbing from one to five cases before 2024 to eight cases in 2024 and 14 in 2025.
- Most infections involve the brain: 43 of 49 cases (88%) were found in intracranial tissue and the infection is highly deadly, with a reported 60 to 70 percent case‑fatality rate even with treatment.
- Researchers do not know why detections have risen because C. bantiana has no routine national surveillance, its environmental reservoir and usual routes of exposure are unknown, and the UW lab’s national submissions may reflect a sentinel signal rather than total incidence.
- Public health experts are urging clinicians to consider C. bantiana in patients with brain abscesses and are calling for systematic laboratory reporting and coordinated epidemiologic studies to determine true burden, exposure sources, and whether the rise reflects real spread or changes in testing.