The Las Vegas Strip deserves to take a bow after it pulled off its first-ever Grand Prix, in which Formula 1 cars raced directly on the Strip.
That massive undertaking involved transforming the famous stretch of road to create grandstands and make the race a ticketed event.
And while some hiccups occurred — the first day of practice had to be quickly canceled due to problems on the course — race operators quickly solved those issues. All in all the event was hugely successful: Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Chief Executive Steve Hill said it brought record revenues to the city.
Related: Las Vegas Strip faces growing health problem
Numerous things could have gone disastrously wrong. For one, a looming strike by culinary workers from Caesars Entertainment (CZR) -), MGM Resorts International, Wynn Resorts and other resort casino operators was narrowly averted, with last-minute deals keeping workers on the job.
Health concerns were also prominent. Since the summer a number of Las Vegas and Las Vegas Strip hotels have been cited for having bedbugs. That included Caesars' Planet Hollywood and Caesars Palace as well as MGM's MGM Grand, and others including Circus Circus, the Palazzo, the Tropicana, and Sahara. A second wave added the Venetian and Park MGM to that list.
Bedbugs spread quickly and are hard to eradicate, but they generally don't kill people. That's not the case for Nevada's second, and much more deadly, bug problem.
Image source: Denise Truscello/WireImage via Getty Images
Superbug cases are on the rise
Since the covid pandemic, Las Vegas has faced increasing scrutiny over health-related concerns. That makes sense because when you visit the Las Vegas Strip, you're packed in with other people, which makes it easy for viruses and other illnesses to spread.
After its covid-related closure in 2020, the Strip recovered slowly. Caesars and MGM staggered the reopenings of their properties, and customers were slow to come back. An increase in covid cases led to the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show — which was supposed to be the Strip's grand return to normal — being a virtual ghost town with most major companies pulling out.
The Las Vegas Strip was also blamed for being a superspreader location for respiratory syncytial virus, a fast-spreading virus that causes breathing problems. Broadly, covid made people more aware of how diseases spread, and cities that draw large tourist numbers from all over the world are especially vulnerable.
That's why Nevada's congressional delegation has taken strong interest in Candida Auris, a hard-to-treat so-called superbug that has prompted record numbers of cases in the state.
Las Vegas Strip wary of new health problems
"Candida auris (C. auris) is a type of yeast that can cause severe illness and spreads easily among patients in health-care facilities," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website. "It is often resistant to antifungal treatments, which means that the medications that are designed to kill the fungus and stop infections do not work."
That means stopping the spread of the superbug becomes supremely important, especially in a place where someone could get infected and then get on a plane before showing any symptoms.
In October Nevada reported 57 new cases of the potentially lethal infection and another "123 cases of colonization were reported in which individuals typically have the fungus in the folds of their skin, invisible to the eye, yet are not sick. Those people can still transmit the pathogen," the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Those are rising numbers despite Nevada's congressional delegation back in April asking the state's health-care officials to come up with a better plan to stop the spread of C. auris.
The clinical-case number likely increased because of more rigorous reporting and screening, but the colonization numbers suggest that the superbug presents a growing problem.
"If a patient is colonized or infected, health-care providers take special steps to prevent the spread of C. auris, including placing the patient in a room separated from those at risk, cleaning the rooms with special disinfectant products, and wearing gloves and gowns to deliver care," the CDC advised.
In the coming months, the Las Vegas Strip will welcome a number of major events, including CES and the Super Bowl. That creates opportunities for C. auris to travel via colonization, making it important for the state to make every effort to control the superbug before that happens.
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