February 2, 2023 – Could global warming help fungi spread dangerous infections amongst humans?
The Wall Street Journal reports that scientific evidence suggests this will be the case, as “dangerous fungal infections are on the rise.”
The temperature of the human body is simply too high for many fungi. But as temperatures rise, some fungi adapt to higher temperatures, including within the human body, the newspaper wrote. “Climate change may also cause some disease-causing fungi to expand their range, studies show.”
Previously harmless fungi could “suddenly become potential pathogens,” said Peter Pappas, an infectious disease specialist on the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
According to the CDC, at the least 7,000 people died from fungal infections within the United States in 2021. In 1970, the number was several hundred greater than yearly.
The journal cited a study within the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that showed that higher temperatures could cause fungi to evolve faster and thus survive.
“Fungi are not transmitted from person to person, but through fungal spores in the air,” said Asiya Gusa, study co-author and a postdoctoral fellow within the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University. “They're in our homes, they're everywhere.”
The World Health Organization has listed Cryptococcus, Coccidioides, Histoplasma and Candida auris amongst probably the most dangerous fungal pathogens for humans.
“We keep saying these fungi are rare, but this must be the most prevalent rare disease because they are now everywhere,” said Andrej Spec, co-author of the evaluation and associate professor of medication at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.