[imagesource:hbo]

When HBO’s The Last Of Us started filling our screens with the onslaught of an apocalyptic mushroom-headed zombie-causing fungal infection, we palmed it off as a piece of video-game-to-TV fiction.

The danger of fungi was promptly spoken about across major new sites, with Sky News and the likes asking “could the next public health crisis be caused by a fungus?”

Sure, the reality of a mass cordyceps outbreak is far-fetched, but the concept is not completely without scientific backing.

Professor Elaine Bignell, a world leader in the field of human fungal pathogen research, says that there are actually “numerous fungi infecting the brains of human beings all over the planet, often with devastating outcomes” but that the “public is not well aware of this”.

According to the Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections, 300 million people are affected by serious fungal pathogens each year, resulting in 1,6 million deaths.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) released a landmark report on a list of health-threatening fungi to be aware of:

Among the fungi deemed most high-risk was Aspergillus fumigatus, a common mould that is widespread in the environment in homes and outdoors, which can cause “chronic and acute lung disease” and can be deadly.

Candida species, which are behind complaints like thrush and skin rashes, are also one of the leading causes of bloodstream infection in intensive care patients.

Cordyceps do not make the threat list, but there is a parasitic fungus infecting and taking over the mind of insects, as it does to the humans in The Last Of Us.

This is ophiocordyceps caloceroides infecting a tarantula:

Image: Ian Suzuki/Wikimedia Commons

One aspect of the scene in The Last Of Us showing an epidemiologist giving a bleak speech on the danger of fungi (see below) – which is a view shared by the WHO’s landmark report – is the influence of climate change on the nature of fungi and our relationship with it:

This shook me. Especially after COVID. Well done @HBO #TheLastOfUs pic.twitter.com/M4yfbg8mb3

— Shinobi Lewis (@ShinobiLewis) January 17, 2023

Prof Bignell says the impact of global heating will be “profound” for all microbes – there are 150 000 identified species of fungi – on our planet as they adapt to warming temperatures and potentially become pathogenic.

Straight off the back of this HBO hit and the warning it rang out, a 61-year-old man caught a disease caused by a plant fungus, in what doctors believe is the first case of human infection by the microorganism.

Working as a plant mycologist, the man went to a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata after suffering from a hoarse voice, cough, fatigue and difficulties swallowing for three months, notes The Telegraph:

Scans revealed the man had a paratracheal abscess on his neck, and when pus samples were sent for testing, it emerged that he had been infected with Chondrostereum purpureum – the same fungus that causes silver leaf disease in plants.

The fact that this infection has popped up amid heightened concerns about the threat microorganisms pose due to climate change and their resistance to available treatments is alarming:

In this case, the 61-year-old made a full recovery after receiving two antifungal medications for two months. However, the infection has alarmed public health experts as it was not previously thought that fungal spores in plants could infect human beings.

Ramanan Laxminarayan, the Founder and President of the One Health Trust, warns that the next pandemic could very well come from fungal pathogens.

Warmer temperatures could allow fungi to adapt more easily to survive within the human body and existing fungal infections could spread to new geographic areas.

Keep a look out for WHO’s watchlist of the 19 most worrying pathogens in case you become one of the last of us.

[source:telegraph&skynews]