A team of assassin mushroom experts is working tirelessly to prevent the next global pandemic, as there are at least four organisms considered “critical” threats.
Scientists in Australia’s National Mycological Reference Center (NMRC) is identifying New fungi that have the potential to spread. on a global scale, causing mass infections and deaths because there are no antifungal medications on the market.
Inside the laboratory, researchers are working on antifungal drug discovery, susceptibility testing, and surveillance for emerging antifungal resistance.
The biggest threat is a yeast-like fungus called Candida auris, first discovered in Japan in 2009, which can cause serious blood infections in humans.
Approximately four million people die each year from fungal infections worldwide.
Sarah Kidd, director of the NMRC, said ‘The Last of Us’ has helped educate people about fungal infections that are becoming more common and are estimated to cause four million deaths a year worldwide.
The TV show ‘The Last of Us’ features a world where a fungus infects the population, turning people into zombies, and became an instant hit when it came out in 2023.
“For the first time, people are interested in fungi,” Kidd told SA Pathology.
“Now they understand that it’s more than just superficial infections like athlete’s foot.”
She continued, “Since the COVID-19 pandemic just happened and after watching this show, people are wondering: could this happen with mushrooms too?”
The fungal infection in ‘The Last of Us,’ called Cordyceps, ‘zombifies’ insects but poses no threat to humans, Kidd said. The Guardian.
Their cooler body temperature prevents them from transmitting the infection to humans because they cannot grow at our normal body temperature of 98.6 degrees.
The HBO show ‘The Last of Us’ has raised awareness about the prevalence of fungal infections
Although Kidd said a zombie-like fungal-induced apocalypse is not a possibility in real life, “we are already experiencing a kind of slow-moving fungal pandemic.”
The lack of fungal treatments has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to label four of 19 pathogenic fungi as a “critical” threat to public health.
The CDC reported that the top four fungal infections include Cryptococcus neoformans, Candida auris, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Candida albicans.
While Candid auris is the biggest threat today, it did not receive more attention until five years later, when it was identified in South Africa, India, and the United States.
Last year, Kidd and his team realized that Candida auris was a new type of drug-resistant species, but they worked hard to perform diagnostic tests to understand, identify and diagnose the disease.
Sarah Kidd is a researcher at the National Mycological Reference Center and said Candida auris is affecting immunocompromised patients.
Candida auris fungal infection is increasing worldwide as Australian researchers struggle to find a treatment.
Last year, Kidd and his team realized that Candida auris was a new type of drug-resistant species, but they worked hard to perform diagnostic tests to understand, identify and diagnose the disease.
Kidd said Pathology SA that is “causing chaos globally,” but she and her team developed a PCR test to quickly detect patients who might have contracted the fungal infection.
This rapid detection process allowed hospitals to isolate patients more quickly and prevent the spread of Candida auris.
“They call it the first fungal superbug,” Kidd told The Guardian, “because it behaves like any of those resistant bacteria.”
This fungus can live in people and spread easily from person to person until it enters the bloodstream, creating a bacterial infection that has become resistant to antibiotics.
Fungal infections are beginning to spread throughout the world and Candida auris is no exception.
It infected 2,377 Americans in 2022 and an additional 5,754 asymptomatic people tested positive, according to the CDC.
The most common symptoms include fever, low blood pressure, chills, and body aches, but for most people there are no symptoms.
Scientists don’t yet know how deadly it is, but the CDC reported that the mortality rate for people infected with Candida auris is between 30 and 60 percent, but noted that most of the patients who died had underlying conditions.
The WHO reported that the rapid spread of the fungus is likely due to rising global temperatures due to climate change, which is causing pathogenic fungi to spread and mutate, and increased international travel.
But the biggest problem, Kidd said, is that “fungal diseases have been neglected in terms of research and funding, development of diagnostics and antifungal drugs.”
But Kidd said she and other NMRC researchers are working to develop tests and treatments to prevent future infections and the possibility of another pandemic.