Public health bosses will advise hospitals on how to cope with a deadly fungus that has become resistant to most drugs.
Candida auris was first identified in 2009 and has since struck hundreds in Britain and the US, among other countries.
Hospitals are now struggling to deal with the little-known fungus, prompting health officials in England and Wales to step in.
Public Health England has said it is looking to update its guidance on C. auris amid fears it is 'spreading like wildfire'.
The agency first published guidelines for dealing with the fungus in 2017, including telling doctors to isolate infected patients and ramp up hygiene measures.
Candida auris has been identified across the globe since 2009. Now, public health bosses will advise hospitals on how to cope with the deadly fungus that has become resistant to treatment
Some 260 patients have been found to have C. auris in Britain in six years, The Times reports.
The fungus can enter the bloodstream and spread throughout the body, causing serious infections and death, in some cases.
Concerns have been raised because the fungus thrives in hospital settings and does not respond to commonly used anti-fungal drugs.
If a person is healthy they are unlikely to be affected by the fungus, but it can pose a more serious threat to a patient with a weakened immune system.
Candida auris (C. auris) was first described in 2009 after being found in the ear canal of a 70-year-old Japanese lady.
In 2011, it was reported as a cause of bloodstream infection in South Korea.
It has since been identified in countries including Canada, the US, Venezuela, Colombia, South Africa and India, as well as the UK, Spain, Norway, and Germany.
In the US there have been 587 reported cases, mostly in New York, New Jersey and Illinois, leading C. auris to be put onto an 'urgent threats' list by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Based on current information, 30–60 per cent of people with C. auris infections have died, according to the CDC.
But many of these people had other serious illnesses that also increased their risk of death.
A large outbreak in Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust's Royal Brompton Hospital in west London involved 72 patients between April 2015 and November 2016 and caused the hospital to shut its intensive care unit for 11 days.
As of July 2017, no-one has died directly from C. auris infection in the UK, according to PHE.
Although, one person did die following the Royal Brompton outbreak due to other reasons.
Dr Johanna Rhodes, an infectious disease expert at Imperial College London, said she and her team
