Deadly Fungal Infection Emerged Because of Global Warming, Study Says

A new study on the mysterious origins of a deadly fungal infection that seemed to have simultaneously emerged in far-flung corners of the globe finds that global warming may be to blame. Candida auris, a fungus that can kill anyone who comes into close contact with a carrier, was first identified in 2009 in a Japanese patient with an ear infection. It then started showing up in hospitals in Asia, Africa and South America in patients without a clear link — and no one could figure out why. “The greatest mystery is how you end up with the same fungal species emerging in three different continents at roughly the same time when they are genetically different,” says Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of the molecular microbiology and immunology department at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He’s also the lead author of the new Candida auris study, published Tuesday in the journal mBio. In researching Candida auris, Casadevall’s team looked at close relatives of the fungus. They noticed the majority of them cannot survive in the warm temperatures of the human body, leading them to believe that this fungus may have adapted to higher temperatures. The majority of fungi grow well in ambient temperatures but only a small percentage can tolerate our body temperature. The concern is that the higher ambient temperatures caused by global warming will eventually lead some kinds of fungus to breach the thermal restriction zone, what Casadevall expl...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Disease health onetime Source Type: news