A “Japanese fungus” which is resistant to drugs has spread to at least 55 hospitals across the UK, public health officials have warned.

NHS trusts have been ordered to carry out deep cleans of all affected areas after more than 200 patients were found to be infected or carrying the potentially fatal pathogen.

Infection experts are alarmed by the spread of the fungus, which has been likened to a “superbug”- because it has already proved resistant to the main three classes of drug treatment.

The fungus, called Candida auris, was first identified in Japan in 2009, in the ear canal of a 70-year-old woman. Since then it has spread rapidy around the globe, emerging in at least five continents, with the first UK case detected in 2013.

Healthy patients can usually fend off the fungus, though they may carry it. It is those with compromised immune systems who are most likely to contract a bloodstream infection, which can prove fatal, or cause major disabilities such as hearing loss.