The Last of Us It has been for many one of the best series of the season. But, in addition to entertaining us, it has also made some fears flourish. For example, the possibility that certain fungi, which normally do not affect humans, acquire the possibility of doing so. Therefore, knowing that a fungus that normally only infects plants has infected a human for the first time, in Indiait can be worrying.
The good part of the story is that the man is fine. Although the case has now been published, it has been two years since it occurred and the patient is still doing well. Even so, it is striking that the fungus Chondrostereum purpureumwhich normally causes the silver leaf disease in plants, it could infect a human.
In the study published by the scientists who treated himthey point out that, because of the global warmingThese types of situations could become more frequent. Again, they remind us of what happened in The Last of Us. Although, so that there is no panic, what they have in the series and the video game is very extreme. So much so that there are several reasons why it would be practically impossible for something like this to happen.
The fungus that jumped from plants to a human
A 61 year old man, plant mycologist by profession, he went to a hospital in India complaining of hoarseness, coughing, tiredness and difficulty swallowing. He initially got a chest x-ray, in which they found nothing abnormal. For this reason, a CT scan of the neck, in which they did find an abscess. This was removed and sent for analysis, looking for the infectious agent that had caused the symptoms.
The first attempts were unsuccessful. They did not find the source of the infection. For this reason, we proceeded to send a sample to WHO, where it was decided to sequence it. Thus, they managed to name the fungus that had made the patient ill. It was about Chondrostereum purpureumbut it was surprising, since it was the first time that this fungus had been known to have infected a human.
Despite his profession, the man denied having worked with that particular fungus. However, he did that he had handled decaying plantsso it was possible that some of them were infected with C. purpureum.
The end of the story is much happier than any chapter of The Last of Us. As they point out in the study, the abscess was completely drained and then the patient was given an antifungal drug called voriconazole. She took it for 60 days and the treatment was subsequently withdrawn. Two years later, she is doing well and there are no signs of relapse.
What reminds us of The Last of Us
For a fungus to infect humans, it must be able to survive at temperatures 35°C to 37°C. This leaves very few candidates. Furthermore, even the ones that are capable of doing so do not usually cause serious illness with a competent immune system.
However, that does not mean that we should lose sight of them. In the first place, because it is necessary to protect the most vulnerable people. And, on the other hand, because there could be changes that do affect a greater proportion of the population.
For now, these scientists are concerned about the consequences of global warming. They explain it in the study in which the case is reported: “The worsening of global warming and other activities of civilization opens the Pandora’s box for new fungal diseases”.
If we don’t want to open that Pandora’s box, we must try to stop global warming. at teeI’ve Last of Us They didn’t and they paid dearly for it. Arriving at something like this is characteristic of fiction. But we’ve already seen what it can do to an entire planet, even a relatively mild pathogen like SARS-CoV-2. There are plenty of reasons to combat climate change and, of course, preventing the spread of new diseases is one of them.