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Health officials are watching a rare but dangerous fungus that can slip into the brain and turn a routine medical mystery into a life-or-death emergency. What makes this one especially unsettling is that it is showing up more often, sometimes in people who seemed perfectly healthy, and it is proving hard to catch early.
Cladophialophora bantiana, a dark mold known for its melanin-rich pigment, has been tied to brain infections that can move fast and hit hard. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points to a rise in detections across the country, with laboratory findings suggesting the fungus has become more noticeable in recent years.
The numbers tell a sharp story. A University of Washington microbiology lab found that detection nearly quadrupled from 2023 to 2025, and national case counts also climbed after years of being extremely uncommon. From January 2009 through July 2026, researchers identified 48 confirmed cases and one probable case across 21 states and the District of Columbia.
Most patients were older adults, with a median age of 68, but age is only part of the picture. About half of infections happened in people without any known immune system problems, which is part of what makes this fungus so unnerving for doctors and public health teams.
The exact path into the body is still being studied, but researchers think the mold may be inhaled or enter through a skin wound before traveling through the bloodstream and into the brain. The CDC report noted that 88% of cases were detected in brain tissue and 12% in lung tissue, a pattern that supports inhalation as a likely route.
That progression can be brutal. C. bantiana is associated with a fatality rate of roughly 60% to 70% even when aggressive treatment is used, according to a systematic review published in Medical Mycology. It is the kind of infection that can look quiet at first and then suddenly become an emergency.
The rise is not just a quirk of more testing, either. Researchers compared infections with the number of brain tissue samples tested for fungi and still found a meaningful jump, from 8.4 cases per 1,000 specimens during 2017 to 2023 to 26 cases per 1,000 specimens in 2025.
“Reasons for the apparent increase are unknown,” the CDC report stated, and that uncertainty is part of why officials want stronger national tracking. Cases have turned up in a wide spread of states, with California, Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania reporting the highest counts in the recent data.
Doctors face another problem once a patient arrives with symptoms. This fungus often shows up as a brain abscess without obvious external clues, so standard tests can miss it and delay the diagnosis. In one fatal case at the University of Washington Medical Center, spinal fluid PCR tests were negative both before and at the time of a brain biopsy.
That kind of miss can be costly, especially when the infection is already advancing inside the skull. Experts say clinicians should keep C. bantiana in mind when brain abscesses do not have a clear explanation, because the usual playbook does not always catch this mold early enough.
Treatment usually means surgery to remove infected tissue, followed by several antifungal medications. Even then, outcomes can be grim, which is why the CDC is pushing for better awareness, better reporting, and a higher level of suspicion when fungal infections do not fit the usual pattern.
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