Last of us For many it was one of the best shows of the season. But besides being entertained, it also created some fears. For example, the possibility that some fungi that do not normally infect humans acquire the ability to do so. Therefore, knowing that a a fungus that usually only affects plants first infected a person in Indiait may be disturbing.
The good part of the story is that the man is fine. Although this case has already been published, it has been two years since it happened and the patient is still doing well. However, it is striking that the fungus Chondrostereum purplewhat usually causes silver leaf disease in plants, it can infect humans.
A study published by visiting scientists notes that due to global warmingSuch situations may become more frequent. Again, they remind us of what happened in Last of us. Although, lest there be panic, what they have in the series and video game is quite extreme. So much so that there are several reasons why this is almost impossible.
A fungus that has moved from plants to humans
61 year old man plant mycologist by profession, he went to a hospital in India complaining of hoarseness, coughing, fatigue and difficulty swallowing. One was originally made chest radiograph, in which nothing abnormal was found. For this reason Neck CTin which an abscess was found. It was removed and sent for analysis in search of the infectious agent that caused the symptoms.
The first attempts were unsuccessful. They did not find the source of the infection. For this reason, we started send sample to WHOwhere it was decided to sequence it. Thus, they managed to name the fungus from which the patient fell ill. It was about Chondrostereum purplebut this was surprising, since this was the first case of human infection with this fungus.
Despite his profession, the man denied that he worked with this particular fungus. However, he managed rotting plantsso it’s possible that some of them were infected C. purple.
The end of the story is much happier than any chapter Last of us. As noted in the study, abscess is completely drained and then the patient was given an antifungal drug called voriconazole. He took it for 60 days and then the treatment was stopped. Two years later, she is still doing well and there are no signs of a relapse.
What reminds us Last of us
For a fungus to infect humans, it must be able to survive in cold temperatures. from 35°С to 37°С. This leaves very few candidates. In addition, even those that are capable of this usually do not cause serious diseases with competent immune system.
However, this does not mean that we should lose sight of them. First, because it is necessary to protect the most vulnerable people. And, on the other hand, because there may be changes affecting a large part of the population.
At the moment, these scientists are concerned about the consequences of global warming. This is explained in a study that reports the case: “The aggravation of global warming and other activities of civilization opens Pandora’s box for new fungal diseases“.
If we don’t want to open this Pandora’s box, we must try to stop global warming. on a T-shirtI am the last of us They didn’t and paid dearly for it. Achieving something like this is typical of science fiction. But we have already seen what it can do to the entire planet, even a relatively mild pathogen like SARS-CoV-2. There are plenty of reasons to fight climate change, and of course, preventing the spread of new diseases is one of them.
Source: Hiper Textual
